The City of Cape Town is pushing with real ambition and aspiration to move its local government into the digital age.
As a result, over the next 10 years, the city’s biggest single item of expenditure in new investment is to make sure all aspects of its government activities are digitally transformed and built from a digitally-first bias.
This was the word from mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, saying the city has set aside a total allocation of nearly R15 billion over the next decade for digital transformation in Cape Town.
“This will ensure we are able to capitalise on our position as a tech capital, and we’ve already begun work on this process by searching for Cape Town’s best tech minds.”
Hill-Lewis was among the keynote speakers at the 25th edition of Africa Tech Festival 2022, which kicked-off in Cape Town yesterday.
Africa Tech Festival combines AfricaCom and AfricaTech. After a two-year hiatus, the tech event has come back this year to explore connectivity, infrastructure and telco evolution.
As home to tech heavyweights such as Naspers, Takealot, Aerobotics, Clickatell, GetSmarter, Yoco and Sweepsouth, Cape Town boasts a thriving tech and start-up ecosystem.
The mayor alluded to this while welcoming delegates in attendance at Africa Tech Festival 2022, to what he referred to as the ‘home address’ of tech in Africa.
He expressed pride in the city’s position as “Africa’s tech capital” and the investments it is making to burgeon its brand positioning and position.
“We’re a city that has a world-class digital ecosystem; we’ve got great human resources and talent. The Mother City is proud to be the host of this event and to be Africa’s tech capital.
“The Cape Town, Stellenbosch combined tech region already employs more than double the amount of people in the tech sector than Nairobi and Lagos combined.”
In addition to the planned investment allocation, Hill-Lewis explained the local government has launched a tech internship programme within the city. This will allow graduates to get financial support from the city, guaranteed work placement and develop skills in software development and coding, artificial intelligence and machine learning, virtual reality and the internet of things.
“For talented, young tech minds in Cape Town and in South Africa − please think about the exciting opportunities that a career in the City of Cape Town holds and the internship programme we are currently running, with applications open for you to come and work in the tech and data support team in our city.
“Our message to the city, businesses, investors, SMEs and to the continent is that Cape Town is the place to be for tech in Africa. Tech businesses here can look forward to a more tech-friendly business environment in Cape Town in the coming years, including a much larger pool of skilled local talent.
“Digital transformation in our government not only leads to new opportunities for economic growth and job creation, but also improves the functioning of government, to the benefit of all of our residents.
“We are not making these enormous investments just for the sake of it; we want every Capetonian resident and every business in Cape Town to have the easiest possible experience with our government.
“We remain deeply committed to doing whatever we can to ensure the tech industry flourishes here and more so than anywhere else on the continent.”
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