Ethiopia to host regional banking ICT conference

A major continent-wide conference on banking and ICT is scheduled to be held in Addis Ababa on August 2, 2013 as the horn of African Country emerges as one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

The Ethiopian Banking & ICT Summit 2013, which will highlight technical and business opportunities in the country’s growing ICT sector under the theme “Harnessing Africa’s Digital Future”, has been organized by Cyber Security Africa, the UK-based IT security solutions provider.

“The one-day event will bring together business players from both public and private sectors, including government officials, international organizations and local business leaders,” said Sammy Kioko, Cyber Security Africa Alliance Manager.

It will feature expert speakers from local, regional and international markets. Ethiopia has emerged as one of the continent’s most exciting new markets in the world, being the fastest growing non-energy-based economy on the continent at an average annual rate of 11 percent in recent years.

This global optimism is supported by IMF’s projection of Ethiopia as the third fastest growing economy from 2011 through 2015, trailing only China and India. With continued market reforms, global integration, and pro-business reforms, Ethiopia is positioned for many more years of rapid growth.

“Africa’s second most populous nation is emerging as an important investment destination,” said Mr. Kioko.

Investment in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Africa is a booming industry with its own set of unique opportunities and challenges. In the past decade, the growth of Africa’s mobile industry is considered to be one of the continent’s successes in development and technology. Services like M-Pesa have been innovative in developing solutions for an African context, offering mobile banking and money transfers where many remain unbanked.

Ethiopia is considered to be one of the highest in the world, taking into consideration the prevailing poverty levels. Currently, Ethiopia’s “committed” investment in ICT accounts for 10 percent of overall GDP, and the government has invested over $14 billion in this sector for over the last decade.

“Such huge investments require Financial Institutions and other organizations using ICT to understand the opportunities, threats, risks and vulnerabilities in ICT services and products as they are the biggest consumers of technology.”

“Likewise, ICT practitioners need to know how they can protect this key ICT infrastructure” added Mr Kioko.

Delegates attending the summit will learn how to confidently, develop and implement a bullet-proof ICT  strategies to maintain consumer trust and promote service usage, Identify the technical, device, network and hardware vulnerabilities that could compromise service security, understand the impact of regulatory frameworks on e-commerce and Manage the business risks associated with ICT Infrastructure, financial transaction processing.