The 15th Annual Connected Africa Summit is set to be held from April 27 to April 30 at the Edge Convention Centre in Nairobi, with ministers from across the continent confirmed to attend alongside private sector and development partners.
ICT Cabinet Secretary William Kabogo, speaking at a press briefing, framed the summit around the urgency of continental digital governance.
“The rules that will govern Africa’s digital economy for the next decade, on artificial intelligence, cross-border data, and digital trade, are being written now. Africa needs to write those rules, not inherit them,” he said.
This year’s theme is “Uniting Africa’s Innovation for an Inclusive Digital Market.” It is the 15th edition of an event that began as Connected Kenya in 2009 before expanding its scope first regionally and then across the continent.
The Ministry has set three concrete deliverables for the four days.
An AfCFTA Digital Trade Implementation Sprint List of eight to twelve measures will target the friction that still makes cross-border digital trade unnecessarily hard.
Alongside it, an African Data Space Action Note will set out a working framework for data interoperability aligned to the African Union Data Policy Framework.
The week also aims to produce a pipeline of bankable projects across connectivity, Digital Public Infrastructure, cybersecurity, and digital skills, each with a named lead and delivery timeline.
Kabogo said the principle running through all three is that “Africa should be able to negotiate once, as a continent, rather than 54 times, country by country.”
Confirmed ministerial delegations are attending from Ethiopia, Malawi, Uganda, Gabon, Guinea, Chad, Zimbabwe, and other African states.
Her Excellency Deemah AlYahya, Secretary-General of the Digital Cooperation Organization, is also attending. The 2025 edition drew over 1,500 delegates from more than 30 countries.
Safaricom is a key partner for the summit, committing KES 22 million in support, including internet connectivity at the venue, with the company’s representative describing the partnership as that of “an ecosystem partner” rather than a conventional sponsor.
The summit has 47 confirmed sponsors in total, among them Huawei and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE).
The CS acknowledged the gap between the summit’s ambitions and current conditions on the ground. Just over a third of Africa’s population uses the internet today.
Broadband remains expensive relative to household incomes across the continent. “Too often,” Kabogo said, “the rules on artificial intelligence are written in rooms where Africans are not present.”
The ICT Authority, which organizes the event, also signaled that it plans to establish a permanent secretariat and dedicated office for the summit rather than assemble a team each cycle.
The four-day program will include high-level plenaries, ministerial closed sessions, private sector engagements, and an exhibition.
