Microsoft’s new tech event, NexTech Africa to take place in Nairobi

How can we build technology that best supports African creators? How can companies start to breed a data culture for success? What does it mean for African innovations to be globally relevant? These are some of the questions that Microsoft will be exploring at NexTech Africa 2017, the organisation’s new flagship Africa technology event to take place in Nairobi, Kenya on 2-3 February 2017.

Created by a group of passionate Africans at Microsoft, the event will connect technology and business leaders, Microsoft engineers, local developers and entrepreneurs, in an effort to listen, engage and collaborate on developing more locally relevant technology, the body has said in a statement.

 “We believe in the power of the emerging technologies to connect people to key services and boost productivity, while utilising unique and differentiated business models. Our goal with this event is to bring various players together and collaborate, so that we can equip our innovators with the right technology-based tools and infrastructure, helping them create and scale more of these solutions,” said Kunle Awosika, Country Manager of Microsoft Kenya in the release.

Mr. Kunle Awosika

Attendees will within the two days take part in a series of talks, sessions and forums on topics including cloud, cloud, big data, machine learning, the Internet of Things, e-commerce, digital transformation and technology in emerging markets. Also, entrepreneurs and developers will have the opportunity to engage with Microsoft engineers on a one-on-one basis.

“Through initiatives like 4Afrika, Microsoft has greatly contributed to the development of local innovations in Africa,” said Amrote Abdella, Regional Director of Microsoft 4Afrika.  She enlightened that the initiatives permits Microsoft not only to know how mobile and cloud technology is accelerating growth for Africa, but also how continental innovators are using the platforms to accelerate technology for the world.

“NexTech Africa is an opportunity to fast-track the application of products and services, tailored to meet our needs in Africa. Similarly, NexTech will also showcase world-class African solutions that are ready to go global,” Amrote Abdella said further.

Among a dozen speakers at the two-day event that will be running under the theme: Building for Africa, is Mr Joseph Mucheru, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology. He was Google’s first Sub-Saharan employee and was key to setting up of Google’s presence in Africa from 2007.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi in Yaounde