PRESS OFFICE: Africa CEO Forum

From artificial intelligence and big data to robot automation: the world’s digital revolutions are changing the game in Africa and shaking up the continent’s development models. Despite posing a threat to industrial job creation, disruptive technology also points to promising growth opportunities for African champions across diverse sectors.

How can the potential of big data be better exploited to accelerate financial inclusion in Africa? What drivers of growth do e-health services offer the private sector? How can smart farming and technological innovation dramatically increase agricultural yields? How can Africa’s internet penetration be boosted? What are the opportunities offered by online higher education? How can solar energy be deployed on a large scale and permanently establish itself as an essential source in Africa’s energy mix?

The next Africa CEO Forum will focus on the opportunities offered by disruptive technologies to stimulate growth and employment on the continent and thereby spark a new era for the African private sector. For two days, some of the innovators who made history in Africa will tell their stories, like Jesse Moore, founder of M-Kopa, the leading off-grid solar energy company in East Africa and the heads of Google Nigeria, Microsoft and Orange.

This year’s Africa CEO Forum is specifically devoting a panel to start-ups, the continent’s new pioneers of innovation. The African tech ecosystem comprises more than 310 active hubs and is emerging as one of the most promising in the world. Five major African start-ups, at the forefront of innovation in e-commerce (Capricorn Digital), telecommunications (Africa’s Talking), agritech (Twiga Foods), fintech (In Touch) and digital advertising (Omniup), will compete for the ‘Most Promising Company of the Year’ award. The jury will be made up of specialist investors, including IFC experts and the heads of two of Africa’s main venture capitalist firms: TLcom and Omidyar. This new trophy, which recognises the nascent African company with the most growth potential, will be awarded at the Africa CEO Forum Awards on Monday night, March 26.

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About the Africa CEO Forum

The Africa CEO Forum is an event organised by Jeune Afrique Media Group, publisher of Jeune Afrique and The Africa Report, and Rainbow Unlimited, a Swiss company specialising in organising events promoting and facilitating business. Following the success of its 2017 edition, which hosted over 1,200 African and international personalities, the Africa CEO Forum definitively established itself as the leading international event focusing on the development of Africa and its companies, in a top-level professional setting conducive to business meetings.

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www.theafricaceoforum.com

Press contact for the Africa CEO Forum: Abdoul Maïga – +33 1 44 30 18 18 / [email protected]