Prime Minister of Senegal (centre) Rt. Hon Mahammed Dionne makes the keynote address at the AIS’18 opening ceremony in Dakar. With him on the podium are Dr. Nii Quaynor, AfNOG Convener; Mary Tiew, Higher Education Minister of Senegal; Abdou Karim Sall, Director General of ARTP and Abibu Ntahigiye, then Chairman of AFRINIC.
Africa needs to address the disparities that exist between individual countries in terms of internet governance in order to adequately achieve the ICT goals set out in Agenda 2063.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Africa Internet Summit (AIS) 2018 in Dakar, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Senegal Rt. Hon. Mohammed Dionne called on all stakeholders to work towards digital inclusion and digitization of economies in the continent so as to reap from the immense potential the internet has for Africa.
The premier commended AIS as the flagship event that brings together the networks and communities that are responsible for Internet governance and coordination in Africa.
“The Senegalese government considers the internet as a catalyst of growth. In our country, ICTs contributes 2 percent to the GDP. But with the 2016-2025 Senegal Digital Strategy, we want to bring this share in GDP to 10 percent by 2025,” He said.
According to the Prime Minister, the Summit came at the right time to help build the capacity of digital economy actors.
He further noted that the Senegalese government is deploying optical fibre throughout the country and encouraging the adoption of the principle of infrastructure sharing between different digital operators.
Also present during the ceremony was the Director General of the Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Post of Senegal (ARTP), Mr. Abdou Karim Sall.
In his speech, Mr. Sall noted that ARTP has done tremendous work to expand internet access in Senegal. According to Mr. Sall, over 9 million Senegalese use the internet, representing a penetration rate of 62.9 percent.
AIS 2018 was hosted by ARTP and the Ministry of Telecommunications, Post and the Digital Economy of Senegal. Also present was the Minister for Higher Education Mary Teuw Niane.
