After founding and successfully stirring the affairs of the Africa Information and Communication Technologies Alliance (AfICTA) for six years running, Jimson Olufuye has stepped down as its founding Chairman.
This is as AfICTA at its 6th Annual General Meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya recently and in line with its constitution, elected its second Chairman, Hossam Elgamal of the Arab Republic of Egypt.
AfICTA is a concerned private sector led alliance of ICT Associations, multi-national corporations, companies, organisations and individuals in the ICT sector in Africa.
Olufuye, who has been in the vanguard of African digital inclusion in his farewell speech while narrating his success story outlined seventeen achievements recorded during his tenure.
Some of his achievements included the articulation of the constitution of the Alliance.
Development of the AfICTA strategy document; development and hosting of the website and successful migration from .org to .africa, registration of the alliance in Nigeria, registration in Nigeria of the trademarks: Africa ICT Champion and Africa ICT Personality Awards, setting up of a self-sustaining AfICTA secretariat with 2 staff, unbroken organisation of the Alliance summit for the past 6 years, among others.
Olufuye listed other achievements to include, signing of memorandum of understandings (MoUs) with Software Engineering Competency Centre (SECC), IT Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), Egypt, National IT Development Agency (NITDA) Nigeria and Asian-Oceania Computing Industry Organisation (ASOCIO), World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), enhancing links between business and governments across Africa, boosting intra-African Business Match-making for trade and wealth creation across Africa, initiating the “1m Jobs Initiative by 2025” powered by EITESAL, continuous engagement with the African Union especially on IGF and the growth of member countries from six to thirty with twenty four African countries to go.
Meanwhile, current members are from Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Namibia, Cote d’Ivore, Ghana, Tunisia, The Gambia, Niger, Mali, Ethiopia, Burundi, Rwanda, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zambia, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Chad, Benin, DRC, Senegal, Uganda, Mauritius, Cameroon, Gabon and Lesotho.
In his acceptance speech, Elgamal thanked Olufuye for all the good works he had done and promised to take the Alliance to greater heights in collaboration with his colleagues on the board and members in general.
AfICTA says its vision is to fulfill the promise of the digital age for everyone in Africa while its mission is to encourage multi-stakeholder dialogue fostering accelerated and ICT enabled development in Africa and the use of cutting-edge innovative technologies including mobile, computing and satellite technologies to achieve an Information society in Africa.
Jumoke akiyode-Lawanson
