- Berlin & Brussels
- Recap
Smart Africa Delegation trip 15-22 November 2023 (Berlin and Brussels)
“The aim of Smart Africa is not to turn the continent into a digital island, but into a digital market that is connected to other markets in the world.”
Lacina Koné, CEO of Smart Africa
With clear words and a vision of an internationally networked digital Africa, Lacina Koné, CEO of Smart Africa, opened the Alliance’s delegation trip to Brussels and Berlin. A spotlight on a digital African single market.
15 – 17 November
Meeting with the EU on shaping an African digital single market and cooperation between Africa and the EU. With: Koen Doens, Director General of DG INTPA of the European Commission and Renate Nikolay, Director General of DG CNECT.
20 November
Exchange with representatives of the BMZ in Berlin on the further partnership. With: Thomas Helfen, Head of the Division for the Coordination of Operational Cooperation with Africa and Noémie Bürkl, Head of Unit for Digital Technologies at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
21 November
As part of the fifth G20 Compact with Africa Summit, Federal Minister Svenja Schulze (BMZ) welcomed 40 African digital entrepreneurs and innovation champions to the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. The BMZ side event “Shaping the Future with Africa – Young Entrepreneurship as Key to a Just Transition” focused on promoting innovation and young entrepreneurship. Lacina Koné was one of the invited panellists.
“Through a strategic combination of capacity building, supportive policies, sufficient funding, solid networking and strategic partnerships, we can unlock significant potential and pave the way for sustainable and inclusive growth across the continent.”
Lacina Koné
22 November
Joint panel discussion by Anna Sophie Herken, Member of the Management Board of GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) and Thelma Efua Quaye, Head of the Digital Infrastructure Programme at Smart Africa at the Hertie School in Berlin.
“If we want to transform Africa properly and efficiently, we also need a cross-border digital transformation. Our goal at Smart Africa is to unlock Africa’s potential through a single digital market. And we will achieve this through a bold multi-stakeholder approach, because we cannot do it alone.”
Thelma Efua Quaye
About Smart Africa
Smart Africa, an alliance of 39 African heads of state and government, aims to transform Africa into a knowledge-based economy through affordable broadband access and the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). The aim is to create a digital single market on the African continent by 2030. The main players: African member states, private companies such as Google, Orange and Huawei, political partners such as the German Development Ministry (BMZ), the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), the World Bank and the European Union.