The Connected Africa Summit 2025, held from May 26–29, 2025, at the Diamonds Leisure Beach & Golf Resort in Diani, Kwale County, Kenya, is a major event driving Africa’s digital transformation.
Theme: “The Digital Journey: Vision to Reality” encapsulates Africa’s ambition to translate digital innovation into tangible impact across sectors like education, health, manufacturing, and sustainability.
Objective: The summit serves as Africa’s flagship platform for digital transformation, fostering collaboration among policymakers, tech leaders, investors, and innovators to address challenges and unlock opportunities through emerging technologies such as AI, blockchain, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and climate technologies.
Attendance: Over 2,000 delegates from more than 50 countries, including heads of state, ICT ministers, Fortune 500 executives, academics, and development sector leaders, are participating.
Day 1 (May 26, 2025):
The summit opened with a focus on the Nairobi Declaration, a commitment from the 2024 summit to enhance digital collaboration across Africa. Stanley Kamanguya, CEO of Kenya’s ICT Authority, emphasized assessing progress and addressing challenges to meet these goals.
Safaricom’s Keynote: James K. Langat, Safaricom’s Head of Regional Network Implementation and Operations, delivered a keynote on “5G and Beyond: Building”, highlighting advancements in digital infrastructure.
Safaricom showcased transformative solutions, positioning itself as a leader in driving Africa’s digital journey.
Day 2 (May 27, 2025):
Discussions focused on AI, digital transformation, and smart regulation. Key themes included secure and inclusive digital adoption, ensuring accessibility for women, persons with disabilities, and refugees through programs like AjiraDigital.
Safaricom led panels and demos, showcasing AI’s role in revolutionizing industries such as agriculture, healthcare, and financial services.
A significant announcement was Safaricom’s $500 million investment over three years to develop AI infrastructure across East Africa. This initiative aims to build an “intelligent economy” by training over 5,000 employees in AI fundamentals and supporting the East Africa Device Assembly of Kenya to produce affordable 4G devices, enhancing digital access. AI applications, such as fraud prevention on M-PESA, were highlighted.
Key Announcements:
The Connected ICT Innovation Awards will recognize contributions to Africa’s digital ecosystem during the summit.
The Africa AI Declaration and a $60 billion Africa AI Fund, announced at the Global AI Summit on Africa in Kigali (April 2025), were referenced as part of the broader continental push for AI, influencing discussions in Kwale.
[Key Participants and Organizers
Hosts: Organized by Kenya’s Ministry of Information, Communications, and the Digital Economy in partnership with the ICT Authority of Kenya.
Notable Figures:
H.E. William Ruto, President of Kenya, leads the charge, emphasizing Kenya’s role as a digital hub.
Eng. John Tanui, Principal Secretary for ICT and Digital Economy, presented Kenya’s vision to become Africa’s hub for outsourcing IT-enabled services.
Stanley Kamanguya, CEO of ICT Authority, highlighted the summit’s evolution from Connected Kenya to a continental platform.
Hon. William Kabogo, ICT Cabinet Secretary, stressed cross-border collaboration for a unified African digital strategy.
Corporate Partners: Major tech companies like Safaricom, Cisco, AWS, HPE, Fortinet, KCB, and MindHYVE.ai (a pioneer in Agentic AI and Artificial General Intelligence) are key supporters. MindHYVE.ai headlines the summit, spotlighting Africa’s role in global AGI development.
The summit aligns with Kenya’s AI Strategy 2025–2030, launched in March 2025, which aims to position Kenya as a leader in AI innovation through ethical governance and sectoral applications.
It builds on the African Union’s Digital Transformation Strategy, emphasizing data sovereignty and digital infrastructure development.
The event’s significance is underscored by international participation, including the arrival of the Minister of Economic and Financial Affairs from Sahrawi Republic, invited by his Kenyan counterpart.
