President Lazarus Chakwera says African countries need to work together to create a single digital market as it is the best shortcut to developing a continent whose progress has stalled for years.

Speaking yesterday during the opening of the Sixth Transform Africa Summit in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, he stressed that while it is a fact that Africa’s development has been delayed by several factors including what he called “the new scramble for Africa between the West and the East”, technology offers an opportunity to grow the continent economically.

The President said: “Now, as to the question of how we take such a leapfrogging shortcut, the only way is for us to work hard on lifting the obstacles to digitisation and to work together on connecting the whole continent digitally so that Africa becomes a single digital market.

Hichilema (L) and Chakwera in a discussion at the summit

“That is why I am excited to be here to represent Malawi as the newest member of the Smart Africa Alliance. And I am grateful to President [Paul] Kagame of Rwanda for his leadership in this pursuit and I look forward to engaging in these matters with all my fellow Heads of State who are gathered here.”

Chakwera appealed to other leaders within the continent to join the digital revolution.

“As far as I am concerned, there should be more Heads of State here because if we are going to rise as a continent and leapfrog into the fourth Industrial Revolution powered by digitisation, then we must rise through technology, we must rise together, and we must rise now,” he said.

Smart Africa Alliance director Lacina Kone said the alliance has in the last 10 years grown its capital from $600 000 to $23 million besides increasing its membership.

“Our 10 years’ journey has been marked by strong and meaningful multi-stakeholders’ collaboration and partnerships through practical projects and initiatives, with one shared vision: Accelerating the creation of a single digital market by 2030,” he said, adding that they have also grown partnerships with funding institutions such as European Union, the World Bank and African Development Bank.

Minister of Information and Digitisation Moses Kunkuyu said in an interview Malawi has joined the alliance this year and hopes to benefit from other countries and players in its digitisation agenda.

He said: “We have prioritised issues of digitisation because we know that this is what will help to grow our economy.

The Transform Africa Summit is an initiative of Smart Africa Alliance, a network of 36 African countries and other private players aimed at promoting Africa’s digital agenda. It was launched in 2013 in Rwanda seven member States before growing to 36 and Malawi is a new catch.

The summit, which ends this Friday, is the sixth since the launch.

Besides Chakwera and Kagame, the summit was also attended by Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, King Mswati of Eswatini and host President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe. Other delegates are from financial institutions and other private sector players.

This year’s theme is ‘A connected, innovative and transformed continent’

Each of the leaders gave an address. In their speeches, the common feature was a call to work together within the continent to accelerate efforts to achieve the alliance’s ambitious target of creating a single digital market in Africa by 2030.

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