Speech by the Outgoing Chairman of AfICTA, Engr. Hosam Elgamal at the 8th Annual Summit, 2020
It is truly amazing to be here addressing you all colleagues, old and new friends. It gives me great pleasure to address this AGM session. This important gathering albeit virtual, highlights the dilemma we have been facing these past few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on a lot of countries both in Africa and in the world and I hope that you all are keeping safe with your families.
I joined AfICTA 8 years ago and I have promoted her on serveral platforms I found myself speaking at, including the ICC-BASIS where I represented AfICTA but my journey as the Chairman of this great Alliance began 2 years ago when you all did me the honor of electing me to this office at the 2018 AGM in Nairobi. I appreciate the privilege and honor you have given me to serve as the Chairman of the Board these past 2 years.
I would like to thank the Vice-Chairman - Mr. Thabo Mashegoane, the members of the ExComm - Paul, Waudo, Tola, and my fellow Board members for all the support throughout my tenure as Chairman. My greatest gratitude goes to my predecessor - Dr. Jimson Olufuye, as this job wouldn't have been possible without his continuous input in the great wealth of knowledge and experience in the African ICT ecosystem, which he offered to the Alliance. His commitment to the Alliance is without a doubt admirable, most especially working together with the Secretariat - Kayode and Samuel, the on-ground staff in Nigeria to help achieve all our accomplishments these past two years which I would be highlighting shortly.
In the same breath, I would like to express my sincere congratulations to the person you will choose as my successor. I wish him/her well in his/her future role as the new chair and champion of the Board of AfICTA.
Next, I would like to commend AfICTA for the milestones reached over the past 8 years since it was founded by Dr. Jimson Olufuye reaching 32 member nations in Africa
During my time as Chairman, we continued in the same vein as the past Board by leveraging the existing relationship developed with the African Union to send members of AfICTA - (Hossam Ragheb from Egypt, Assangbe Wotto Gbentonji Vivien from Benin, Ulandi Exner from South Africa, Inye Kemabonta from Nigeria, Caroline Kirichu from Kenya, and Bambo Samuel Cameroon) from Africa on a “Train the trainers” project and reports on this were delivered by Mr. Inye Kemabonta who returned with positive news from the mission as well as the plans to execute the mandate of training others in their different countries which has been executed successfully.
Also, standing on protocols established by the past Chairman - Dr. Jimson, we were able to host 2 e Conferences centered on 2 different countries in Africa. The 1st which was tagged the 3rd eConference was very successful with speakers from Egypt invited to speak on the state of digital transformation in the financial sector in Egypt and how other countries could adopt these methods in ensuring success in the Fintech Sector. A report on the event can be found on the AfICTA website. The second eConference was a collaborative webinar with UNECA - “Unlocking the Digital Potential of Africa”. Outcomes of which highlights the need for a meticulous approach in investments in creative solutions at Nations and regional level through consolidated and precise digital cooperation amongst ourselves in Africa. Reports from this can also be found on the website as well. I would also like to implore the incoming Chairman and Board to continue in this tradition as the eConference helps booster AfICTA’s presence in the intercontinental stage and drive membership to AfICTA. I also suggest that AfICTA continually foster relationships with unilateral organizations such as SMART Africa & UNECA to ensure we have more collaborative projects.
When I assumed office in 2018, the AfICTA members base was 150 which was very much commendable to see how AfICTA was rapidly driven to attain that feat and we had to build on that by embarking on several projects geared at increasing the registered members on the AfICTA database. I mandated the Secretariat to carry out a series of task aimed at improving AfICTA’s reach within three months, thanks to the exceptional work done by the Secretariat, we were able to increase the reach of AfICTA newsletters from 1500 to over 5000 subscribers in Africa and globally. Through close monitoring of these newsletters traffic we have been able to drive the membership to over 300 members( a whopping 100% increase) since I assumed office in October 2018. I would like to officially commend the work done by the secretariat in this aspect,they were very efficient and effective in delivering on this mandate.
Before I assumed the office, AfICTA only boasted a total of 20 membership subscriptions annually and through close monitoring and meticulous efforts at the conversion of registered members, we have been able to increase membership subscriptions from that numbers to about 29 membership subscriptions in 2020, a feat which consequentially increased revenue from about $3200 to about $4200 in 2020.
At this point I would be remiss not to mention perhaps one of the most important projects we carried out during my time as Chairman, which is the Africa Digital Information Hub, a project solely developed to generate data and serve as a repository for information on digital Strategies employed in different African countries, this was majorly geared at improving the value proposition of AfICTA, as this would be very essential going forward with proposals for collaborations and sponsorships which AfICTA would seek for in the future. It is with great pleasure that I announce to you that as of today we have launched the African Digital information hub and it holds data on Digital transformation strategies and policies for 22 different countries, we hope that this would be improved in the years to come. I would like to also commend the Vice Chairman, Thabo Mashegoane for coordinating this project and my fellow board member Timilehin Ambali from Dot-engee for committing his time and resources to the project as well as the Secretariat for continuously gathering data and updating the information on the repository. We must focus solely on improving AfICTA’s value proposition as we continually grow and broaden our position in the African Market and Ecosystem.
Now, I would like to specially thank Paul Rowney for his work so far on the IGF MAG and most especially for pushing AfICTA to submit a proposal to the IGF considering that we represent a very important stakeholder group which is the private sector in Africa. Thanks to efforts by both Dr. Jimson Olufuye and committed members, we were able to submit 2 Workshop proposals consecutively at the IGF in 2019 and 2020. Both proposals were accepted and were successfully carried out, recommendations were passed to the IGF as part of the advocacy duties AfICTA performs on the continental stage.
On collaborations, we have successfully established partnerships in the form of MoU with organizations such as ACT - Association for Competitive Technology, and AFRITEX. It is also noteworthy to mention we have an outstanding partnership proposal with EC-Council and I hope that the incoming Chairman and Board successfully see this partnership to its conclusion. Our partnerships generally improve our stake in the African ICT ecology.
This growth has not been without challenges though. We have been facing problems with securing sponsorship for the Alliance. Currently, the two major revenue streams for AfICTA are the membership subscriptions and the ICANN BC Outreach Support funds and this are contingent on the programs AfICTA would hold to help ICANN BC reach more countries. This is a good account and I hope that the incoming Chairman can work on getting more sponsorship coming into AfICTA treasury as well as increasing the revenue streams for AfICTA. As I suggested in the penultimate Board meeting which I presided over as Chair, I urge all board members to focus on fostering relationships with multilateral organizations to secure sponsorship funds for AfICTA. As indicated in the Horizon 2020 submission made by AfICTA during my tenure, it would also behoove members of the board with experience in project funding proposals to work together with the Secretariat to secure some more cash inflow into AfICTA.
Looking ahead, our progress can be measured by the health of our membership.
I am delighted to fully welcome the representatives from Araba Technologies, KEMITEL SA & ICET from Nigeria, Cameroon & Togo respectively. We hope you join us to work towards fulfilling the promise of the digital age for everyone in Africa.
The challenge for the Alliance is to keep moving our agenda forward with integrity, keeping AfICTA relevant, practical, and valuable for members and stakeholders alike.
I am confident that under the stewardship of the incoming Chairman, we will be well-equipped to achieve this goal.
I wish the Board, and you all every success. And thank you for your support and the friendship that has made my two years as Chair so enjoyable.
Let the next chapter begin.
