Africa's Richest Man, Dangote Addresses Global Audience at Demo Africa 2015

Africa’s richest man and chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote will address the global audience at the DEMO Africa 2015 edition at Eko Hotel & Suites on 24 and 25 September 2015, Yele Okeremi, chairman of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) has confirmed.

DEMO Africa is one of the flagship initiatives of LIONS@frica and aims to connect African startups to the global ecosystem.

DEMO Africa is the place where the most innovative companies from African countries get a platform to launch their products and announce to Africa and the world what they have developed.

According to Okeremi who is also the CEO of Precise Financial System (PFS), Dangote is expected to share his entrepreneurship and startups experience with 30 technology startups that have been selected to demonstrate how their products will positively impact the world.

The event which is co-hosted by National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and it supervising Ministry of Communication Technology will feature notable speakers  including Dr. Tunji Olaopa, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communication and Technology;  Mobolaji Adeoye, MD, Kuramo Capital (a venture capitalist company with current investment of $5m in hotel.ng) and Tobi Oke, Director, Intel Capital.

Others are Peter Jack, DG, NITDA; Jorn Lyseggen, founder, Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology [MEST], which trains, mentors and invests in world-class technology entrepreneurs and African startups from Ghana and Nigeria; Stephen Ozoigbo, CEO, African Technology Foundation among others.

However, DEMO Africa recently released a list of 30 technology start-ups from across Africa that will pitch at the 2015 edition of the event.

With eight representatives, Nigeria tops the list again. Kenya is second with six startups.

South Africa is third with three representatives while Ghana, Egypt, Cameroon and Zimbabwe have two entrepreneurs respectively. Uganda, Tanzania and newcomer, Ivory Coast, have one startup each.

The 30 start-ups were selected from a list of over 600 hundred applicants with four earning direct nominations during the DEMO Africa pre-pitch events.

Peter Jack, the DG of NITDA, congratulated these start-ups and welcomed them to Nigeria for the epic Pan African technology event.

“We are excited at the opportunities that technology has presented to our African youths in creating jobs and wealth. This is a great moment in the history of Africa, steadily rising to establish its digital footprint in the world. As an IT agency, we will continue to support and grow our innovation ecosystem through great platforms such as DEMO Africa,” Jack said.

According to DEMO Africa Executive Producer, Harry Hare, globally, the “DEMO experience has helped to introduce new products and services that have become popular brands in the business and consumer markets, which include Evernote, Salesforce, Cisco webex, Jawbone, Waze, and Tivo among others. DEMO Africa provides a great opportunity for African start-ups to showcase their innovation to the rest of the world”.