Two-day Africa Tech Summit now under-away in Kigali

The Africa Tech Summit Kigali is now under-away after kicking off this morning in the Rwandan capital.

The summit aims to explore the major trends in the continent’s tech sector, connect key players and entrepreneurs as well as drive investment into Africa’s tech ecosystem.

Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Africa Tech Summit Kigali organiser Andrew Fassnidge said over 350 delegates from 29 countries are at the summit, including investors from Australia, Germany and Russia.

Africa Tech Summit Kigali aims to connect, explore and drive investment into the continent’s tech ecosystem

“We tried to ensure a good mix around investors and companies that can be invested in,” said Fassnidge (pictured above).

He said seven innovation hubs from around the continent are represented at the summit which, he said, is an “ecosystem event”.

“Connecting the ecosystem is what we do, we worked really hard to get the right people in the room,” he said.

He also said the event is meant to connect investors with startups and corporates with customers.

The summit has been organised around tracks of panel discussions, talks and break-away sessions which are meant to encourage interaction among delegates.

The first talk at the summit was a deep-dive into the acceleration of disruptive technology across Africa by Ecobank representative Edward George.

This was followed by the first panel discussion of the day which saw NISK Capital co-founder Sara Ooon moderate a panel of investors comprised of Orange Digital Ventures investor Marieme Diop, Africa Venture Capital IFC regional head Wale Ayeni, AHL Venture Partners senior partner Ben Peterson, and TLcom Tide Africa partner Ido Sum.

Disclosure: Daniel Mpala was a guest at Africa Tech Summit Kigali