Mombasa - The ICT program is jointly organized by ICT Research and Consulting House of Choice in Africa, ForgeAhead, and the South African Department of Communications.
The launch will take place on 6 July 2007 during the eTourism conference.
The program is in support of the vision of the African ICT Achievers program - to contribute to achieving the goal of making the African century a reality through digital inclusion.
“Our goal is to spread the philosophy of promoting the use of information and Communication Technology (ICT) across Africa through reward and recognition for the efforts being made regarding ICTs. We also want to showcase, through this program, the good things that some companies, individuals and governments are doing in terms of growing the use of ICTs in Africa,” says Jane Mosebi ForgeAhead, managing director.
Previous participation includes Gilda Odera from Skyweb Technologies, a finalist in 2005 for the Top ICT Businesswoman in Africa category.
Launching the program throughout the entire Africa aims to increase the visibility of the various ICT projects running across the continent within the private and public sectors, and foster more national and cross-border partnerships.
Another focus area of the African ICT Achievers program is the various business forums, which facilitates the sharing of knowledge between ICT professionals and decision makers on ICT issues. This is geared towards finding answers and solutions to various ICT concerns and to increase service delivery to citizens in all corners of Africa.
Launches have taken place in Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland and Mozambique. Future launches are scheduled in Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, Ghana and Tanzania this year.
“The aim of this expansion is to launch the African ICT Achievers program across the five regions of the continent by 2008, the 10th Anniversary of the program,” says Mosebi.
When the African ICT Achievers program has been launched in all the five regions, the goal is to have each region run its own leg of the Awards – handling the nominations and judging process and ultimately appointing a winner for that region in each of the categories.
All the winners in the various categories from the regions will then be finalists that will compete in the overall African ICT Achievers Awards for the coveted title as top achiever in each of the respective categories.
The Winners will be announced at the African ICT Achievers Awards Banquet, to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa at the end of November.
The annual African ICT Achievers Awards program has at its core, one that touches the lives of all Africans, namely to “Make the African Century a Reality.”
Established in 1998, the African ICT Achievers Awards has built a strong foundation of recognition and reward for those ICT individuals and organisations who have made a difference in the lives of others less fortunate and who support the challenge that countries in Africa face in leveraging ICTs to make a difference across our continent.
The African ICT Achievers Awards Program comprises three complementary elements: The Awards Program comprising nomination, adjudication and the annual banquet; an annual Executive Business Summit designed to bring government and business leaders together to debate and find real world solutions to digital inclusion; and a Corporate Social Investment element.
