UAE's Gitex in Marrakesh was more than a tech show

Youssef Mamou and Larbi Belrhiti, founders of agri-tech firm Yola Fresh, who were exhibiting at Gitex Africa in Morocco. Andy Scott / The National

It has been 42 years since the launch of Gitex – the UAE’s biggest and most established technology conference – and in late May, the exhibition opened for the first time outside the country’s borders.

The inaugural Gitex Africa was an exhibition in Marrakesh, Morocco and proved a fertile ground for start-up businesses looking to connect with investors and take the next step in digitising their entrepreneurial spirit. A red carpet welcomed visitors, while performers danced to the rhythm of booming African music that echoed around the conference plaza inside the “Red City”, as the exhibition flung open its doors to an eager crowd on May 31.

While there was little in the way of technology on show – with some stands proudly displaying an air fryer or portable bluetooth speaker as the pick of the gadgets – this conference looked a little different from what we have been used to seeing each year in Dubai.

The UAE tech conference opened in North Africa for the first time. Andy Scott / The National

This edition of Gitex Africa was more than just a technology conference – it was a part of the growing behemoth that has become "Brand Dubai" and an opportunity to export one of the emirate’s most well-established names and plant the national flag of opportunity firmly in the ground. Staged in a 45,000-square-metre tented conference centre at the Place Bab Jdid, more than 900 companies, government entities, start-ups and participants from at least 100 nations from across Africa and elsewhere attended the three-day conference.

There have been plenty of new dawns for Africa’s emerging tech scene

Africa might soon require a new moniker as mass-electrification from new renewable energy supplies lights up rural areas. Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia and Botswana are each leading new solar power project developments, while the UAE has played a key role in establishing Togo’s first 70 megawatt energy plant.

In the technology world, Africa is a sleeping giant that is beginning to wake from its slumber with the watching world ready to do business. It has the lowest internet connectivity of all the continents, with just 22 per cent having reliable online access. That may have stunted growth in recent years while other nations developed at pace, but the potential is clear, with renewable energy ready to unlock that potential.

On a recent assignment to Uganda for The National, it was clear to see the ambition and drive of the young, tech-savvy population. With an average age of just 16 years, Uganda is primed for an explosion of economic growth, fuelled by rapid digital transformation.

Across Africa, thanks to local initiatives and outside investment, much of the continent is beginning to switch on and tap into that talent pool of ideas.

There have been plenty of new dawns for Africa’s emerging tech scene. Just six years ago, the continent failed to register a single unicorn start-up – a company valued at more than $1 billion. Today, there are seven start-ups now worth that figure. Chipper Cash, a fintech company started by entrepreneurs from Uganda and Ghana to facilitate cross-border payments in Africa, is valued at about $2 billion. Senegal-based money provider Wave is worth a cool $1.7 billion.

A vendor waits for customers at a charging and telcom kiosk, powered by solar energy, in the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement in Bweyale, Uganda, on February 25, 2022. Bloomberg

The same young people I met in Uganda, who seized an opportunity to start their own businesses after becoming unemployed during the Covid-19 pandemic, bemoaned the fact that poor digital infrastructure limited growth. Many people in the capital, Kampala, were without internet access so they relied on basic feature phones, rather than smart phones. This meant using SMS text to access options to book hospital appointments, pay bills, or make delivery orders with service providers.

As many large-scale renewable energy projects pop up across this vast continent – with Morocco one of several nations to invest in huge solar fields – millions of people are finally tasting the opportunity of regular electricity, and the internet, for the first time. That has left many at the peak of a wave of change, in the way they live and work.

In speaking with several other African journalists visiting Gitex in Morocco, this emerged as a familiar story across the continent. As broader digital access becomes available, huge opportunities are likely to open up for e-commerce and trade. With an estimated 500 million mobile phone users across Africa and a flourishing mobile money market, there appears to be colossal opportunity for investment.

But while the world is coming to terms with the new potential offered by widespread 5G access, much of Africa is still clinging on to the hope of a reliable 3G signal. During the Gitex Africa event, the irony of being unable to access the internet from the makeshift media centre was not lost on journalists furiously trying to send video and images back to base from a much-vaunted technology conference.

Orange, Huawei, Alibaba, Airtel, MTN, Dell and Du were among a roster of familiar players invited to provide speakers for the exhibition – each with a message of unlocking Africa’s potential through effective digitisation.

Trixie Lohmirmand, chief executive of Kaoun International, the event organiser behind Gitex, said the conference was likely to return to Morocco in 2024, with other international venues also probable in the years ahead.

A mission to create an established pan-African event now looks likely, as the momentum continues towards switching on the lights in even the farthest corners of the continent.