President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has challenged African leaders to chart their path with quick uptake of digital utilization if their respective countries are to catch up with developed nations.
President Chakwera said this on Wednesday when he addressed the Transform Africa Summit currently underway at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.
The Malawi leader conceded that Africa is miles behind in terms of technological advancement and there is a need for African countries to take a different approach to the one that has been pursued by developing countries.
He said: “I submit to you that we have been left behind so much that we will never catch up if our approach is to take the same path as those nations that are hundred of years ahead of us in development”
President Chakwera also called upon African leaders to come together if the dream of African 4th Industrial Revolution is to be realised.
“If we are going to rise as a continent a continent and leapflog into the the 4th Industrial powered by digitisation, then we must rise through technology, we must rise together, and we must rise now,” he said.
Held under the theme “Connect, Innovate and Transform” the summit has drawn together four Heads of State from Rwanda, Zambia, Malawi and the host nation Zimbabwe. The summit has also attracted 4000 dignitaries from 100 countries.
The two-day summit has been sanctioned in order to discuss ways on how African countries can collectively work together in their pursuit of digital revolution.