The 2017 Africa ICT Expo officially kicked off at the Kempinski Hotel on Monday, October 16th, 2017.
The event was themed: THINK, BUILD, SELL.
The event was supported by the Ghana Think Foundation led by Ato Ulzen Appiah as well as some other organisations including MainOne, Subah, and GCNET.
The opening day of the event saw discussions including a panel about the commercialization of local solutions. Panellists included Estelle Akofio-Sowah of Google Ghana (Now CSquared) and Jason Njoku from iRoko TV.
Other panel discussions on that day included discussions about Digital Innovation which was highlighted with great stage presence by the CEO of Websoft, Godwin Martey.
Other panel discussions included Mobile Banking and Financial Inclusion, Revenue Assurance, and a demonstration of Security by ISA.
The second day of the event started off Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Design Thinking, as panellists including Dr Gordon from Ashesi talked about using Design Thinking to solve problems in our society. Panellists also discussed Big Data and now AI and machine learning could be applied to traffic lights to help ease traffic in the city.
Other panel discussions on the day included Cybersecurity practices, E-Health, Education and Agriculture and the Internet Superhighway which featured a presentation from MainOne.
Robots, Video Games and Mobile Apps
Apart from the panel discussions, Mobex 2017 features exhibitors showcasing their products including the popular Mazzuma App (See: Mazzuma Intends To Disrupt The Mobile Money Market With Its App) and a new company called AlexPay recently launched. Both products have their focus on the mobile money aspect of the Fintech space.
There were some folks from Kumasi Hive including Dext Technology (Read: Dext Technology To Represent Africa At ISHOW) showing off their Science Set.
There were 3D printers, robots and of course the gamers including Eyram Tawia from Leti Arts and Paul Ziem from GamerNerd.
Overall the event was pretty solid this year despite the earlier postponed a couple of months ago.
I do have some lingering thoughts about these kinds of events not incorporating some key stakeholders. It would be nice to see specific players from the telecom industry (like MTN and Vodafone) and officials from the government present to take part in some of these discussions especially since they have a big part to play in the tech industry. But there’s an article for another day.
Kudos to the organisers from the Africa Mobile Expo 2017 for this event. Hopefully, we get more stakeholder participation from the big players at next year’s event.
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