President Hichilema at Digital Government Africa 2024

Today is the last day of the 2024 Digital Governance Africa Forum.

This year's forum was held under the theme of building resilience and securing digital government for sustainable development.

President Hakainde Hichilema led the forum, explaining, “Digitisation, technology and ICT are critical to answering our individual country’s and the continent’s quest for accelerating economic and social development.”

President Hichilema also prodded delegates to use digital technology more effectively to accelerate growth in their respective economies, highlighting the positive aspects of digitisation.

“Sometimes we hold back progress not because we want to but because we are not aware of how to avoid the bad progress. On a platform like this, please check-list the issues where you think we as a government are holding you back, whether it be policy, legislative issues or red lettering,” the President continued.

Technology and Science Minister Chipota Mutati highlighted Zambia's progress in its AI strategy and mining sector. The Minister told the 2024 Forum, “We are also going to deliver what is referred to as a Minetech hub, which will be open to the rest of Africa to create solutions in the mining sector and to learn from each other.”

Home Affairs and Security Minister Jack Jacob Mwiimbu noted Zambia's commitment to using technology to streamline public service delivery. 

This year’s summit brought together over 500 delegates from 33 African countries, highlighting Zambia and Africa’s strong commitment to digital transformation.