The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) in collaboration with The African Advanced Level Telecommunications Institute (AFRALTI) , Estonian ICT Cluster and Honorary Consul of Estonia in Kenya held an ICT Round Table Webinar on 30 November 2020. The theme of the Round Table was Creating an Enabling Environment for Effective ICT Adoption. 

The event hosted attendees from around the globe and was graced by The Right Honourable Melford Nicholas – Minister of Information, Broadcasting, Telecommunications & Information Technology Antigua and Barbuda and President Caribbean Telecommunications Union, Ms. Bernadette Lewis – Secretary General Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation, Mr. William Baraza – Director African Advanced Level Telecommunications Institute and Ms. Doris Põld CEO of Estonian ICT Cluster Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications Republic of Estonia.

Speaking at the event, CTO Secretary  General said, “The CTO convened the ICT Webinar to address the creation on an enabling environment for effective ICT adoption. The CTO is committed not just to raising awareness and educating on how to implement ICT effectively, but also to working closely with its members to make it happen expeditiously.”

As a capacity building institution in Africa, AFRALTI recognized its mandate to supplement and spearhead ICT development efforts in Africa which is line with the events theme.  For the last 30 years, AFRALTI has equipped over 30,000 ICT Professionals in Africa through different Human Resources Development Programmes.

As different speakers spoke and presented at the event, it was noted that the rapid pace of technological innovation has erased constraints of space and time, facilitating real time interactive multimedia communications, dismantling the traditional frameworks that govern how we live and ushering us into the era of the 4th Industrial revolution in which the digital, physical and biological coalesce.  And now, the COVID-19 pandemic which has brought havoc with health systems and national economies, has brought into clear focus, the need to effectively adopt ICT to ensure that we can not only continue to operate, but to grow and develop in an era of uncertainty. Indeed, there is a need to accelerate effective ICT adoption to transform the public and private sectors and every dimension of 21^st Century life.