African Federation of Information and Communications Technology Associations established

Savant Steering committee member and president of Information Industry South Africa (IISA), Adrian Schofield, has been elected convenor of the African Federation of Information and Communications Technology Associations (AFICTA) steering committee.

Delegates at the recent WITSA meeting agreed to establish AFICTA, with SA as the initial host country. The steering committee includes representatives of national ICT associations from Tunisia, Algeria, Senegal, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and SA. This committee has three months to prepare a budget, structure, constitution and detailed objectives for AFICTA.

Commenting on the establishment of AFICTA, Schofield said: "We have learned from the experience of the Asia-Pacific region that synergising the resources of national associations brings benefits for all the members and supports the growth of the ICT sector in ways relevant to the needs of the region. AFICTA will build on the network of African associations brought together by WITSA."

AFICTA will be an alliance of African ICT industry associations, committed to the development of information and communications technologies in Africa. Among its objectives will be advocacy with African governments and regional organisations, representing African ICT issues in international fora, promoting information and communications technologies into African economies and governments and support for ICT research and development in Africa.

AFICTA will be associated with WITSA, a global grouping of 65 national ICT industry associations. The decision to establish AFICTA was taken at WITSA's recent Public Policy and Steering Committee meetings, held in SA.

For further information, click onto http://www.informationindustry.org.za.