Dubai: Gitex goes global, launches inaugural Africa edition

Gitex Africa Morocco will take place in Marrakech, one of the country's largest cities, from May 31 to June 2, 2023

Waheed Abbas

Published: Tue 11 Oct 2022, 2:26 PM

Last updated: Tue 11 Oct 2022, 9:28 PM

Gitex, the annual gathering of global technology giants and startups in Dubai, has gone global with the launch of its inaugural Africa edition next year.

Gitex Africa Morocco will take place in Marrakech, one of the country's largest cities, from May 31 to June 2, 2023.

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Trixie LohMirmand, CEO of Kaoun International, said companies across the globe will take part in the exhibition.

Keeping in mind the infrastructure, Gitex Africa is expected to host around 400 firms from the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, she said.

Kaoun International is the event organizing company of Dubai World Trade Centre, which is the organiser of the Gitex Global 2022, the largest technology exhibition in the world.

“Digitization is no longer a choice but a necessity in Africa as one in six internet users will come from Africa. Africa is going through rapid growth across all sorts of technologies such as AI, Quantum Computing and others. There was no unicorn six years ago, but four unicorns were created last year alone, reflecting the growth opportunities in the continent,” said LohMirmand.

Commenting on why Morocco has been chosen for the Gitex Africa, she said, “Morocco has many similarities to Dubai as the emirate connects one-third of the world’s population in 4 hours flight and the world’s two-thirds population in an 8-hour flight. Similarly, Morocco sits at the door of Europe and also connects Africa extensively,” she said.

She stressed that accessibility and affordability for startups are some of the key highlights of Gitex Africa 2023. “We are conscious of that as we have CSR in our plan,” she said.

Mohammed Drissi Melyani, general director of Digital Development Agency, Morocco, said Africa is the future technology world power with a rapidly-growing ecosystem.

With the highest rate of entrepreneurship, he said Africa is generating some of the most important innovations in the world.

“The potential in the technology sector is limitless and the time for action is now. We can work hand in hand to develop a more powerful coherent innovation system. We are deeply engaged to contribute to the success of this first edition and work hard to make it exceptional for all. We value the huge potential that the continent has to offer in the digital sector that grows each year. This will open new opportunities in the African continent,” said Melyani.

Pardon Mujakachi, vice president of strategy and partnership at Chipper Cash, a unicorn in Africa, said over one billion Africans from 54 countries will be looking at the opportunities that this new technology platform will offer.

Ramez El-Serafy, CEO of Flat6labs, said Africa is the next big market and there are tremendous growth opportunities in the startup ecosystem.

“It took years for startups to raise the first $1 billion. This year alone, over $4 billion have been raised by the African startups,” he added.

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