Gitex, Dubai’s flagship technology event, is entering a new market – Africa – it said on Tuesday.
The inaugural Gitex Africa will take place from May 31 to June 2, 2023, in Marrakech, Morocco. It will be the first overseas venture for Gitex in its 42-year history.
Gitex Africa was launched in partnership with the Digital Development Agency (ADD), a strategic public entity leading the Moroccan government's digital transformation agenda. Kaoun International, the overseas events organising company of DWTC, will lead the partnership.
In 2021, Africa recorded the highest funding for startups at $2.1 billion for 563 companies across the continent. The startup funding in the region has grown growing at six times the global average.
“If you look at all these different factors here, we know that Africa is going to go through this rapid growth in all sorts of tech, whether you’re talking about the classic tech, the cloud solutions, the ERP or massive emerging new-generation tech in AI, in data, in edge computing and quantum computing,” said Trixie LohMirmand, Executive Vice President of Events Management at Dubai World Trade Centre, Gitex Global’s organiser.
“Morocco is playing a crucial role to assist and support the development of Africa under the leadership of King Mohamed VI and to link it economically to the rest of the world,” said Mohammed Drissi Melyani, General Director of the Digital Development Agency. “We are deeply engaged to contribute to the success of this first edition of Gitex Africa and will work very hard to make it exceptional for us all.”
Why Africa?
Analysts predict the tech market is on track to soar from $115 billion to $712 billion by 2050, while growth in start-up funding is six times higher than anywhere else. In only six years, Africa went from zero to seven unicorns, with four born last year.
African talent development is also at its fastest. Global tech titans Microsoft and Google are already setting up billion-dollar innovation and talent hubs in Africa, while the number of people with internet access has grown to 522.8 million, or 40 per cent of the African population.
“I’m thrilled to learn about Gitex Africa next year,” said Ramez El Serafy, CEO of Flat6labs, the Middle East and North Africa’s leading early-stage venture capital firm, and an existing exhibitor at Gitex Global's North Star start-up showcase.
“Africa is a rising market with boundless opportunities for bold expansion, where start-ups, investors, accelerators, venture capitalists, multinational corporations and the entire tech ecosystem can construct sustained growth.
Gitex Africa 2023 aims to build on curating powerful innovations emerging from the world’s next most sought-after market across the fast-growing sectors of fintech, e-commerce, cloud, IoT, AI, telecom, and security.
