We'd be delighted to hear from you. GITEX Africa 2025 in Marrakech puts parking and spelling to the test

The 3rd edition of GITEX Africa 2025 kicks off on 14 April, in Marrakech. 20,000 visitors last year, overflowing car parks, AI omnipresent in the conferences, spelling a little off, the best rubbing shoulders with the anecdotal and the amusing, as in many shows of this type, big tech messes. Can Africa take advantage of AI to improve the daily lives and future of Africans, and make the most of their resources? The question posed by an RFI listener during a recent radio programme is pertinent and vital. It was also posed with acuity in Kigali, Rwanda, where the 1st World Summit on AI in Africa came to a close.

2900 billion dollars, the potential impact for Africa. Data security and sovereignty, other issues at stake 
Organised by Kaoun International (whose director is Trixie LohMirmand), GITEX Africa has established itself as Africa's largest technology and start-up exhibition, welcoming more than 20,000 visitors last year. The target for this 3rd edition is 30,000. A figure is circulating, but has not been confirmed: AI and its economic spin-offs for the continent could amount to 2,900 billion dollars by 2030. 

Lagging behind in these areas, the African continent intends to get on board the digital transformation train, which has been given a boost by artificial intelligence. This is because the continent has assets, and sometimes a head start, as demonstrated by the successes of the BPO/call centre sector and M-Pesa, a micro-payment and money transfer system using mobile phones. Launched in Kenya in 2012, this system has made a real impact. Since 1998, following in the footsteps of Teleperformance and then Webhelp, the biggest BPO players have set up call centres in Africa: Foundever, Intelcia, Outsourcia, etc., serving customers from Orange, Samsung, TotalEnergies, AXA, etc.

At Canal + Overseas, the number of subscribers on the continent exceeds 5 million. The quality of the subscriber experience is audited using speech analytics tools embedded in Cross CX. 

Other very important activities, such as content moderation, trust and safety, are also developing, in particular to moderate all content produced in vernacular languages or in English, French, etc. Finally, the recent leak of confidential data on almost 2 million Moroccan employees, including people close to the King, following a cyber attack on the Caisse Nationale de Sécurité Sociale, is a good example of the possible uses of technology. At GITEX, you can learn more about these issues by subscribing to a specific Pass.

Agnès Buzyn, Breega, Concentrix, Foundever and Orange - a host of French companies will be present at GITEX, and some of them have already put their money where their mouths are, because not everyone can afford to have a stand and take the floor: each zone, each element of the visitor pathway, is the subject of a sponsorship or partnership: Concentrix is a Registration Sponsor, while its competitor Foundever, formerly Sitel, is a Badge Sponsor. As far as participation fees are concerned, the first level of registration costs $43, but it will cost $2,250 to attend all the conferences and networking events. Africa and its future prospects in technology have to be earned!

AI omnipresent in conference themes
The conferences will last from 20 minutes to 4 hours. Unsurprisingly, many of the talks will be linked to the theme of AI: a representative of TV5 Monde, for example, will be speaking on the theme of personalising programmes, AI the New TV Star, engaging audiences one screen at a time, while Guillaume Laporte, AI Director at Foundever, will be talking about the benefits of AI in online shopping, known as live-shopping.

Surprisingly, some subjects that might appear to be priorities are being sidelined: The future of healthcare, how digital transformation is saving lives, one of the talks on the programme, will last just 10 minutes. Others, just as important, are likely to be addressed, such as digital sovereignty.

Digital sovereignty is a major issue, given that only 2% of the data collected is stored on the continent. ‘Africa must not remain dependent on foreign platforms’, concluded Faure Gnassingbé, President of Togo and guest of honour at the first global AI summit in Africa. The summit was held at the beginning of April in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and ended with the announcement of the creation of a €60 billion fund dedicated to this breakthrough, with no further details to date.  

Overcrowded car parks, long waiting times, massive visitor flows
Based on the number of major groups present and the number of visitors, GITEX Africa is already a success, but there is a downside. Customer and visitor reviews from previous editions often mention the lack of parking close to the tents and marquees hosting the event, and the queues. These are classic issues at events and theme parks.

More worryingly, the massive influx of visitors and travellers is putting a strain on the city's airport infrastructure: Marrakech-Ménara is overwhelmed.  The Kingdom's second-largest airport handles 7 million passengers a year, a figure that has risen by 23%. Morocco's passenger traffic is increasing every year: 33 million passengers, up 30%, by 2024.

Passengers and international traffic mean questions* and a need for information, expressed in several languages. On social networks, the modern infrastructure of Marrakech airport is appreciated, much less the waiting times, long queues at customs and, it seems, the customer orientation of some staff. There is room for improvement in terms of accessibility and contactability: on the Marrakech airport website, the contact screen invites you to... get in touch. With whom and how? It's impossible to know. No telephone, no form, but a nice typo: But we'll be delighted to get back to you.

The will to serve and to be hospitable is there. But we would suggest a little training - via Orthodidacte or Voltaire - to improve spelling and the introduction of a conversational AI agent to handle calls and requests.  

The World Cup and Airports 2030
AI can be used to correct accents in call centres, spot spelling mistakes, forecast flows, predict the number of staff to be scheduled, carry out revenue management, and so on. Between now and the 2030 World Cup, which Morocco will co-host with two other countries, Spain and Morocco, airport manager Nawal Mounir and her teams have five years to put all this right. This 3rd edition will be a good trial run. By way of comparison, and because blind tests are reliable indicators, we can easily reach and contact Cotonou airport in Benin and Kigali airport in Rwanda. 

*For parents, for example, the loss of a cuddly toy in a shopping centre or airport duty-free zone is a major pain point in the passenger's journey, leading to contact.

If these factors have convinced you, there's still time to embark. Rooms are still available at the marvellous Sofitel Palais Impérial or Riad Timskrine (33 km from Marrakech). 2800 euros for 3 nights for option 1, 270 for option 2. Proximity and luxury still come at a high price, despite or thanks to AI. 

More specifically 
-Airports and train stations are often the first points of contact and contact with a country or destination. There is therefore no shortage of work to be done by ONDA, the National Office that manages these hubs. The ONDA has been headed since 2024 by Adel El Fakir, who succeeded Habiba Laklalech.

A mini-scandal at one time concerned the organisation of GITEX Africa in autumn 2024: a call for tenders conducted at the time by ADD, the Digital Development Agency, had initially, according to Le Desk, resulted in the pre-selection of a contractor who was an empty shell, despite the size of the contract: 120 million dirhams.

-APEBI, the Fédération des technologies de l'information, des télécommunications et de l'offshoring, which aims to promote Moroccan know-how in the field of offshoring, will be present at GITEX, with a stand measuring 510 square metres.

-In the BPO sector, Benin, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Rwanda and even Egypt have succeeded in becoming quality hubs for the production and management of customer services and IT.

-In Kigali, the summit on AI in Africa highlighted the activists who are fighting a relevant battle: the emergence of an AI that is not exclusively owned by the USA or China and that respects everyone. Listen to Guillaume Gralet's testimony on France 24 here

Manuel Jacquinet.