West Africa ICT Road Map to Opportunities Conference

Given the state of West Africa's development, ICT initiatives that are most likely to have the desired impact would often have to be large-scale. The base infrastructure oftentimes simply does not exist to permit the growth of application-driven services, spin-offs and the like, meaning transformative business strategy usually has to assume that projects will be starting from scratch.

Alas, the required partnerships - financial, technical, and/or managerial - are frequently lacking in this part of the world, thus throwing the well-laid plans of many an entrepreneur, innovator and policy designer off course at crucial points of execution. It is often said that if one laid all the abandoned ICT concepts end to end they will form a chain enveloping the sub-continent!

This sorry state of affairs is what prompted the Business Council for International Understanding and the United States Trade Development Agency and Partners, ranging from Microsoft to Intel, to sponsor, organise and host the maiden Roadmap for ICT Development Conference in Accra between July 10 and 13 of this year. In attendance were all the major players in West African ICT development, from Government Ministers to Spectrum regulators.
With "ICT", "Large-Scale" and "Development" all woven together into the theme, mPedigree obviously had to be in the mix! And amply represented were we! This was a good opportunity to size up potential partnerships for our impending West African expansion and we particularly found the one-on-one meetings with senior West African government communications experts and dignitaries very useful. Check out the images and tid-bits below for a taste of proceedings. Drop us a line if you were there!

Photo Gallery

Conference participants were exposed to African culture at the Ghana National Museum.
A soiree was organized at the end of the event, in the midst of contemporary Ghanaian art.

Media Reactions

• Jul.09.2008: Ghanaian Vice President Mahama Opens USTDA Conference on Information and Communications Infrastructure in West Africa.
• Statement from USTDA Website: "West Africa ICT Road Map to Opportunities Conference - USTDA is cosponsoring this ICT conference with the U.S. State Department and the Government of Ghana that will bring leading policy makers from West Africa together with U.S. companies and policy makers to discuss regional ICT issues. The conference will be held on July 8 - 10, 2008 in Accra, Ghana and is expected to be attended by senior West African leadership. The conference builds upon the successful sub-Saharan Africa Information and Technology Conference held in San Francisco, California in May 2007".

Partners