Museveni speech at Middle-East and Africa Digital Transformation Summit 2025

(This is a slightly abridged version of President Yoweri Museveni’s opening speech at The Middle-East and Africa Digital Transformation Summit 2025 on June 25, 2025 at Kampala Serena Hotel)

I am pleased to welcome you, all our visitors, who have come to Uganda, to attend the 2025 Edition of the Middle East and Africa Digital Transformation Summit.

It is an honour for us, to host this summit, for the very first time. Thank you for choosing Uganda. I am informed that we have here with us delegates from Africa, the Middle-East, Europe, America, the Far-East, and other parts of the world.

Welcome, indeed, and please feel at home here in the ‘Pearl of Africa’. I would like to applaud our organisers for all the efforts that have enabled us to host this summit in Uganda.

In this regard, I recognise, in a special way, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Business Council, our ministry of ICT & National Guidance and Hi-Pipo (Hi People) Foundation, for the tireless efforts towards organising this summit.

The summit is both timely, and highly relevant to our collective development aspirations, now, and for the future. This is because globally, every aspect of social, economic and political endeavor is happening within the digital sphere, driven by, or hugely influenced by ICT.

Here in Uganda, we have Digital Transformation as a priority government program, and core pillar we are harnessing for improved and inclusive socio-economic growth and development.

As such, this summit is a high-potential forum for further learning, sharing and networking, in as far as emerging technologies are concerned. This contributes towards increased shared prosperity, with more opportunities for our people in Africa, the Middle-East, and indeed, the rest of the world.

This is why Uganda is, and remains an active Member of regional and global development frameworks. Indeed, Uganda’s National Vision 2040, and our National Development Plan IV (2025-2030) are heavily anchored in leveraging digital technologies. Our development agenda is also aligned to the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UN Agenda, 2030, and the Africa Agenda 2063, with ICT as a common enabler.

I am, therefore, glad to note that this summit will extensively explore emerging technologies for e-government services, investment, Agriculture, Healthcare manufacturing, e-commerce, enhanced efficiency in energy, environment, smart employment and wealth creation for our people.

I am also glad to note that this summit has brought together policymakers, ICT industry leaders, development agencies, innovators, academia, private sector players, youth and women leaders, and international partners all united by a shared vision of accelerating inclusive digital transformation across our region.

The summit should, therefore, facilitate in-depth exploration of advanced digital solutions, emerging breakthroughs for economic growth, inclusive financial systems, resilient infrastructure and efficient delivery of public services to our people. This summit must not end in nice PowerPoint presentations.

I challenge you, the scientists, the private sector, the innovators, to go deep. Let us discuss, inclusive financial systems, Artificial intelligence, data sovereignty, blockchain, cybersecurity, smart agriculture, e-health, e-government and affordable connectivity for the masses.

And yes, let us also talk about manufacturing ICT equipment right here in Africa instead of importing used computers from Europe. Outcomes from this summit should, among others, include a closer collaborative ecosystem, that ensure that the Africa and the Middle East keep at pace with emerging, and fast-paced global digital trends.

This way, we shall be able to optimally tap into the opportunities there-from, while coping better with the associated challenges. Here in Uganda, our government policy direction will remain strongly in support of further deepening and expanding the use of digital technologies, under regional and global frameworks, like this one.

We are specifically interested in partnerships for manufacturing ICT devices, affordable clean energy kits, developing ICT parks, software development, expanding infrastructure for internet connectivity and building data centers.

We are similarly open to collaboration in skills development for young ICT innovators, providing cheaper and faster internet, among others. Uganda is ripe for investment, and our government offers generous incentives for viable partnerships in all these, and other areas.

Therefore, I am directing our ministry of ICT & National Guidance to comprehensively document the resolutions from this summit, especially those areas for deeper collaboration, so that our government can act on them, expeditiously. In so doing, the ministry should maintain close collaboration with COMESA, Hi-Pipo (Hi People) Foundation, and other friendly actors, for seamless continuity.

I invite you ALL, to work with us, to mobilise more resources for investment in ICTs and other segments of our economy. Uganda is Peaceful from border-to-border, and strategically located in the heart-land of Africa, it has vast natural resources, good weather, adequate electricity, a young, vibrant and increasingly skilled population, among others.

Where your schedules allow, I also urge our international guests: after the conference, don’t rush away. Tour Uganda. Climb the Rwenzori, visit the source of the Nile, taste our coffee and pineapples, the sweetest in the world and interact with our people, who are warm and welcoming.

I am also inviting you to be our ambassadors in promoting Uganda as a ripe destination for developing digital technologies, for business and for tourism.

Finally, let this summit in Kampala be a forum at which we add major building blocks towards developing and sustaining a digital transformation agenda that works for Africa, the Middle-East, and indeed, for humanity, across our globe.

I thank you. Gen. (Rtd). Yoweri K. Museveni

PRESIDENT/SUMMIT CHIEF-HOST