About 50 telecom gurus in Africa attended to capitalize on investor confidence as well as have a common front. They included Sameer Dave, CTO & Chief Executive, MTN SA, Mohammed Sheik, Group Strategy Director, Zain, Mickael Ghossein, CEO, Telkom Kenya and Steve Bailey, CEO, Virgin Mobile SA.

The summit leader Ahmad Farrouk, CEO, MTN Nigeria talked on the Growth potential of Africa’s communication industry.  He shared his ideas on the importance of deploying networks in rural communities in order to connect harder to reach subscribers and increase market growth.
 
A press statement from the Summit organizers said innovation was clearly the buzz word during the discussions. “Having one of the largest growth markets in the world is clearly not enough for the developing continent, they want to build a sustainable network, a point clearly made by the Commonwealth Business Council and GSMA at the NGT. Such discussion on innovative technologies were lead by giants Microsoft, ITS and HDS who all see Africa as a ‘land of opportunity’ and played a pivotal role in educating the Executives present,” the statement added.
 
The NGT Summit Director William Francis Austin said: “African Telecom leaders have united this week at the NGT and are really embracing new technologies. Such pioneering development in ICT clearly sends out the right message to Global investors, as the continents ongoing socio-economic development continues to improve”.

The next Summit is scheduled to take place in Cape Town in June 2010.