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Morocco unites global tech community’s commitment to advancing African digital economy at momentous GITEX Africa launch

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GITEX Africa

GITEX Africa 2023, now the largest tech and start-up show in the African continent, will make its highly anticipated debut from 31 May-2 June

MARRAKECH, Morocco, May 25, 2023/APO Group/ — 

Debut of Africa’s largest tech and start-up show to welcome 900 companies to explore, discover, and connect to real opportunities in world’s rising digital economy; H.E Dr Ghita Mezzour: “We’re witnessing a historic event, the largest tech networking and business event in the African continent”

Morocco will centre the global tech community’s attention on Africa’s united commitment to advancing the digital economy next week, converging the best minds from governments, businesses, big tech, start-ups, investors and youths to accelerate and catalyse the continent’s ambitious digital transformation journey. 

GITEX Africa 2023, now the largest tech and start-up show in the African continent, will make its highly anticipated debut from 31 May-2 June, with the final preparations underway across ten halls and 45,000sqm of exhibition space in a purpose-built super venue at Place Bab Jdid, Bd Al Yarmouk in the Red City of Marrakech. It will welcome 900 big tech companies, government entities, start-ups and participants from more than 100 countries, while attracting tens of thousands of attendees from all over the world. 

GITEX Africa is the largest business event launch of any industry in the Middle East and Africa in recent years, and is affiliated with GITEX Global in Dubai, the world’s largest tech and start-up show, rated by global tech executives as the world’s best global tech event.

Held under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, GITEX Africa is hosted by the Digital Development Agency (ADD), under the authority of the Moroccan Ministry of Digital Transition and Administration Reform.

Addressing media at the show’s official preview press conference today was H.E Dr Ghita Mezzour, Minister of the Moroccan Ministry of Digital Transition and Administration Reform; Sidi Mohammed Drissi Melyani, the General Director of ADD; and Trixie LohMirmand, CEO of KAOUN International, GITEX Africa’s organiser. 

In attendance were GITEX Africa’s official institutional partners the ANRT (Moroccan National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency), AMDIE (Moroccan Investment and Export Development Agency), ONMT (Moroccan National Tourist Office), ONDA (National Airports Office), Royal Air Maroc, and ONCF (Moroccan National Railway Office).

“The Kingdom of Morocco is proud to host GITEX Africa under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God assist Him,” said H.E. Dr Mezzour.  “We’re witnessing a historic event, the first ever edition of GITEX Africa, and the largest tech networking and learning business event in the African continent.

“GITEX Africa will be an opportunity for Moroccan and African start-ups owners and young programmers to get in touch with regional and global investors and business incubators. An opportunity as well to networking with actors in both public and private sectors.”

Mr. Sidi Mohammed Drissi Melyani, the General Director of ADD, added that hosting GITEX Africa underlines Morocco’s commitment to work alongside the private and public sector to accelerate Africa’s digital infrastructure development while promoting cross-continental e-governance policies that improve digital transparency, openness and process integration: “The Kingdom of Morocco as well as the whole African continent is so honoured to host the first edition of GITEX Africa Morocco, which will take place in Marrakech from May 31st to June 2nd, 2023,” said Mr. Melyani.

“This big event, organised under the high patronage of his Majesty the King Mohammed VI, is an important opportunity to value the efforts deployed by all the Moroccan stakeholders in the field of digital development. It is also a platform of networking between exhibitors, investors, researchers and tech operators around innovative solutions and digital transformation.  This first edition will definitely contribute to enhance digital transition in Africa as a future innovation hub, led by its young talents and competitive start-ups.”

Magnifying Africa’s collective digital innovation ambitions and achievements

GITEX Africa’s impressive scale in its debut edition reflects the ambitions of Africa’s digital movement, with cross-continental initiatives such as Smart Africa’s vision to create a single digital market in Africa by 2030 propelling the continent to the forefront of the global digital economy.

GITEX Africa is the largest business event launch of any industry in the Middle East and Africa in recent years, and is affiliated with GITEX Global in Dubai

“For too long, the world’s second largest continent has been under-stated and overlooked for its profound digital opportunities and aspirations,” commented Ms. LohMirmand, CEO of KAOUN International.   

“At GITEX Africa, our mission is to curate an event that will serve the purpose of the African community in accessing business development, investment and learning opportunities.  We focus on empowering the new generation of tech and creative talents to augment the culture of entrepreneurship and provide a single occasion that shall bring together the public and private sector leaderships to build tangible meaningful outcomes.”

That GITEX Africa hoisted the sold-out sign fuelling further expansion months before its grand opening is testament to the world’s confidence and optimism in the African digital opportunity, amplified by figures that underline the aspirations of African countries in their quest for digital excellence.

Africa’s vibrant start-up ecosystem also continues to grab headlines with the creation of seven unicorns over the last few years while according to analysts Briter Bridges, African start-ups raised a total of US$5.4 billion across 900-plus deals in 2022.

The influx of global interest will see GITEX Africa 2023 host more than 400 disruptive start-ups from 30 countries, including 200 international award-winning start-ups and 11 unicorns eager to share their achievements and access the promising African innovation hub.   

All will have the opportunity to connect with 250 investors from 34 countries with US$200 billion worth of assets under management. As the ultimate start-up incubator and magnet for flourishing VC funds, GITEX Africa will deliver a structured and carefully curated scouting platform for these investors, of which 70 percent are coming from outside of Africa.  

Added Ms. LohMirmand: “GITEX integrates Africa strategically into the hyper-connected tech ecosystem across 100 countries. It now firmly plugs Africa into the global entrepreneurial innovation economy boasting of resources imperative for the region to dynamize its digital transformation mission.”

Accelerating the Moroccan digital development strategy

GITEX Africa 2023 will also accentuate the progress of Morocco’s digital development strategy, strengthening its position among the top three African countries with the best ICT infrastructure, and underlining its status as having one of the continent’s most advanced telecommunications markets.

According to analysts IDC, Morocco’s IT market, comprising hardware, software and IT services, is expected to reach a value of US$1.7 billion in 2023, growing at a CAGR of 4.3 percent to reach US$1.9 billion in 2026. In 2023, growth is expected to be driven by enterprise and service provider spending in the North African country as organisations increasingly look to adopt hybrid cloud as a step towards their digital transformation initiatives.

World’s best minds gather at Africa’s most impactful leadership conference agenda

Africa’s most impactful leadership conference programme will meanwhile gather 250-plus speakers from 50 countries to share valuable exchanges and insights with a curious business audience motivated to draw on international experience applied to an African-centric context. 

The GITEX Africa Digital Summit will lead ten conference tracks comprising 140-plus hours of mind-stretching content exploring the most pertinent transformational topics advancing Africa’s digital agenda, from generative AI and digital cities, or Fintech and agritech, to healthcare, energy, innovation, sustainable development goals, and a spotlight on the world’s most exciting start-up ecosystem.

GITEX Africa 2023 is open from 11:30am to 6:00pm on 31st May, and from 10:00am to 6:00pm on the 1st and 2nd June.  Admission is for trade professionals only with a special invitation for students aged 16 years and older on day three.

More information is available at www.GITEXAfrica.com.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of GITEX Africa.

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AFRICLOUD Opens Lagos Region and Local-Currency Payments in African Markets

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September 23, 2026

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AFRICLOUD

The company’s third African region keeps Nigerian workloads in Nigeria, and customers from Abidjan to Nairobi can now pay in the currency they earn, without an international card

MIAMI BEACH, United States of America, September 23, 2026/APO Group/ –AFRICLOUD (https://AFRICLOUD.com), a cloud infrastructure company, has opened its third African region in Lagos and now accepts payment in local currency across West, Central, East and Southern Africa. Businesses across the continent can run servers in Nigeria, South Africa or Portugal from one account, and pay for them the way they already pay for everything else.

 




  

Download document (1): https://apo-opa.co/4Ardfz9

Download document (2): https://apo-opa.co/46FWH8Y

Buying cloud infrastructure in Africa has meant living with three compromises: traffic that leaves the continent and comes back, payment in dollars behind a card many businesses do not hold, and data sitting under somebody else’s law.

Lagos answers the first. Compute and storage for Nigerian customers stay in Nigeria, and the region also serves Accra, Abidjan, Lome, Douala and Ouagadougou. Traffic from landlocked West Africa that once reached comparable infrastructure by way of Europe now stays on terrestrial West African fibre. Johannesburg serves Southern and East Africa. Lisbon serves North Africa and Europe, and reaches Brazil over a direct subsea route. Across the three regions, AFRICLOUD’s own continent-wide measurements place 42 of the 53 African countries measured within a best-case round trip of 70 milliseconds, countries home to about 1.28 billion people.

A company in Accra or Abidjan now reaches West African infrastructure without leaving the region, and pays for it in the currency it earns

Payment answers the second. Customers across West, Central, East and Southern Africa pay in their own currency, including the naira, the cedi, the shilling and the CFA francs, by local card, bank transfer, USSD or mobile money, with no international card needed. Mobile money is live in twelve African countries, and cards, PayPal and more than 300 cryptocurrencies are accepted everywhere. The GSMA reports that 74 per cent of the world’s mobile money activity by transaction count took place in Africa in 2024.

Residency answers the third. Nigerian data runs under the Nigeria Data Protection Act, South African data under POPIA and European workloads under EU law, chosen server by server from the same dashboard.

“African businesses have been asked to choose between infrastructure that is close, infrastructure they can actually pay for, and infrastructure that keeps their data under their own law,” said Oluniyi Ajao, Founder of AFRICLOUD. “Removing that choice is the reason we built this.”

“Lagos is the piece that completes the map,” he said. “A company in Accra or Abidjan now reaches West African infrastructure without leaving the region, and pays for it in the currency it earns.”

All three regions run the same platform: AMD EPYC processors with all-NVMe storage, IPv4 and IPv6 on every server, and a new server online in about two minutes. Dedicated Servers are built to order in all three regions. Support is available around the clock by chat and email.

Cloud Servers are available now at https://AFRICLOUD.com.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of AFRICLOUD LLC.

 

 




 

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Hong Kong outlines strategies for deepening development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and enhancing green transformation

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5 hours ago

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September 23, 2026

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Hong Kong

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 22 September 2026 – Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee announced the First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) (2026-2030) and his fifth Policy Address on September 16, rolling out measures to further sharpen Hong Kong’s edge amid global competition, consolidate development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) and promote green transformation.

Initiatives aim to support high-quality development of the GBA, align rules and mechanisms within the region, and promote cross-boundary collaboration.

 




 
 

“The HKSAR Government will continue its efforts in fostering synergistic development of the GBA,” said Mr Lee. “We will strengthen co‑operation in technological innovation, promote ‘hard connectivity’ in infrastructure, foster ‘soft connectivity’ by deepening the alignment of rules and mechanisms, and achieve ‘connectivity of hearts’ among residents of the three places.”

The HKSAR Government will continue to actively participate in the development of the various major co-operation platforms, including Qianhai of Shenzhen, Nansha of Guangzhou, Hengqin of Zhuhai and the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Co-operation Zone, to promote mutual benefits.

In terms of “hard connectivity” the HKSAR Government will support Nansha in its role as a high‑standard gateway for opening up, including encouraging the trade to participate in Nansha’s infrastructure development.

“To promote the co‑ordinated development of rail transit in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, we are pressing ahead with the Northern Link Project and the Hong Kong‑Shenzhen Western Rail Link (Hung Shui Kiu‑Qianhai), with target commissioning in 2034 and 2035 respectively, to fully connect the rail transit networks of Hong Kong and Shenzhen,” Mr Lee said.

Regarding “soft connectivity”, Mr Lee said the HKSAR Government will set up a Task Force to explore ways to advance the alignment of rules and mechanisms within the GBA.

To achieve “Connectivity of Hearts” among residents across the GBA, Hong Kong will strengthen co-operation between its higher education institutions and those in other GBA cities by establishing cross‑disciplinary partnerships, facilitating scientific research, knowledge transfer, and commercialisation, with a view to promoting high‑level research.

Hong Kong’s Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Janice Tse, noted that the First Five-Year Plan clearly states that Hong Kong will participate in the development of the GBA into an international first‑class bay area and a world‑class city cluster with global influence.

“Hong Kong will forge closer alignment and synergy with the nine GBA cities in Guangdong Province and Macao, making full use of our respective advantages to jointly promote the high-quality development of the GBA,” Miss Tse said.

To foster financial development in the GBA, Hong Kong will continue to capitalise on institutional innovation, financial infrastructure upgrading and enhanced regulatory alignment to encourage the orderly flow of financial elements among GBA cities.

The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited’s Core Climate, in collaboration with the Guangzhou Power Exchange Centre, is working towards the pilot trading of national renewable‑energy, green electricity certificates in Hong Kong in 2026.

“On connecting the Chinese Mainland and the world, the HKSAR Government will continue to support green technology development through the HK$400 million (aboutUS$51 million) Green Tech Fund, leveraging Hong Kong’s function as a springboard for green technology and assisting national green technologies and products in going global,” said Hong Kong’sSecretary for Environment and Ecology, Tse Chin-wan. “On the development of hydrogen energy, we have participated in drafting national hydrogen energy standards with a view to helping these standards align with international practice.”

To meet the country’s “dual carbon” targets and fulfil Hong Kong’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality before 2050, the HKSAR Government steered the establishment of a production base for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in Dongguan, leveraging the leading position of Hong Kong enterprises in the international SAF industry.

“By combining technology strengths with industrial foundation, Hong Kong and Guangdong will jointly develop a globally influential green industry,” Mr Lee said.

The HKSAR Government will take forward the construction of an SAF blending facility in Hong Kong to build an end‑to‑end SAF value chain and reduce logistics costs to make SAF prices more competitive. The target is to achieve an SAF consumption ratio of 1% to 3% for flights departing from Hong Kong International Airport in 2030.

Hong Kong’s Five-Year Plan promotes the integrated development of culture, sports, and tourism, to develop the GBA into a cultured bay area.

Under the strategic framework of the Agreement on Strengthening of Sports Cooperation and Promotion of Integrated Development, Hong Kong will deepen co-operation, and strive to co‑organise important regional and international single‑sport events. It will also strengthen cultural exchanges, pass on Cantonese opera and the characteristics of Lingnan culture, and promote the sales and cross‑boundary exhibition of Hong Kong publications.
 




 

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Alamein Africa Forum to bring together key political and business leaders

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6 hours ago

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September 23, 2026

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Alamein

The forum is to become the continent’s premier gathering where political power meets entrepreneurial prowess, bridging the established engines of African growth with the new sectors defining its future

CAIRO, Egypt, September 22, 2026/APO Group/ –The inaugural Alamein Africa Forum (https://AlameinForum.com/) will take place from October 2-4 in the historic city of Alamein on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast in parallel with the 2026 African Union mid-year summit.

Established in response to a mandate from the African Union, which called for a permanent African Business Forum to convene biennially in Egypt, the inaugural edition will bring together Heads of State and official delegations as well as some key actors in business and finance.
 




 

The forum is to become the continent’s premier gathering where political power meets entrepreneurial prowess, bridging the established engines of African growth with the new sectors defining its future.

The Alamein Africa Forum will serve as a pan-African platform bringing together the private sector, investment and financial institutions

The Presidents of Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Libya, Senegal, Somalia, and South Africa are expected in Alamein as well as President Al Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt who is the host of this year’s AU Mid-Year Summit. Business leaders from across the continent have confirmed their participation including Ralph Mupita, MTN; Idrissa Nassa, Coris Bank; Mohamed El Ketani, Attijariwafa Bank; Hichem Eloumi, Groupe Shakira; Wale Tinubu, Oando; and many more. Aliko Dangote, Africa’s biggest industrialist is also expected to attend, with the organisers hoping to set up a Business Advisory Council to help advance private sector priorities and investment throughout the continent.

Bringing together leaders in politics, business and policy from across the continent, the Alamein Africa Forum will provide a unique opportunity to shape Africa’s growth agenda by aligning policy and investment priorities, mobilising partnerships for implementation and strengthening financing and investment pathways. The private sector must become an integral part of Agenda 2063, the AU’s strategic 50 year masterplan to transform the continent.

Co-organised by the Government of Egypt, Afreximbank, the African Union and AUDA-NEPAD, the Forum brings together Africa’s most influential decision-makers in an unprecedented alliance of public and private sector leadership.

Speaking on the imperative of the summit at a joint press conference by the government of Egypt and Afreximbank on Thursday, September 17 2026, Dr. Badr Abdelatty, Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, and Expatriates Abroad said (https://apo-opa.co/4ygiQag): “The Alamein Africa Forum will serve as a pan-African platform bringing together the private sector, investment and financial institutions, and representatives of various productive and service sectors, to strengthen direct links between companies and markets and decision making at the highest level.”

Continuing, he noted that the Alamein Africa Forum is part of a series of high-level African events that Egypt will host in early October, stressing that holding the forum reflects Egypt’s commitment to advancing continental economic cooperation

In his own comments, Dr. George Elombi, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank described (https://apo-opa.co/4ygiQag) the Alamein Africa Forum as a pan-African platform for promoting intra-African trade and investment and connecting the business community and financial institutions with priority projects and investment opportunities in the continent.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Alamein Africa Forum.

 




 

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