Скачать или смотреть Digitech South Africa: WSIS+20 Award, AI-Driven SMME Boost, Rural Digital Inclusion, CBDC Vision

The South African Department of Communications and Digital Technologies’ DigiTech programme has just collected its third global trophy in three years—this time the “Enabling Environment” prize at the WSIS+20 High-Level Event and AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva. The win recognises DigiTech’s role as a national launch-pad for ICT SMMEs: a single window where start-ups can refine ideas, plug into world-class mentorship, and gain commercial visibility — all with a deliberate focus on inclusive development in rural and township communities. https://digitech.org.za/about/

At the core of the model is a dense web of MoUs with multinationals such as Microsoft, IBM, Huawei and Vodacom. Each partner contributes structured curricula on business modelling, DevOps, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity and go-to-market strategy, allowing founders who are strong on code but light on finance to mature rapidly without leaving the country. Government supplies the policy umbrella; industry supplies the tooling and sandbox licenses.

Once a start-up passes the technical-readiness gate, DigiTech brokers pitch sessions with local venture-capital syndicates and impact-fund managers, then pairs founders with PhD candidates from public universities working on AI, data-science and medical-device research. The arrangement has already produced a G20-honoured med-tech prototype and several joint patents in edge-AI diagnostics.

A striking grassroots example is a geolocation-driven “proof-of-residence” app conceived by a rural entrepreneur: traditional leaders tag land parcels, the municipality signs off digitally, and a time-stamped PDF hits the applicant’s inbox within two hours—enough to open a bank account and enter the formal economy. Simple GIS and RESTful APIs, huge socioeconomic leverage.

The current cohort ranges from handheld breast-cancer scanners using convolutional neural nets to DeFi rails for cross-border remittances. All must meet open-platform, low-bandwidth and localisation criteria so that solutions run on entry-level Android handsets as easily as on 5G flagships.

Connectivity, however, remains the programme’s biggest dependency. SA Connect is laying fibre and microwave backhaul into under-served provinces, while regulators weigh LEO-satellite options for last-mile coverage. Without affordable uplinks, even the cleverest APK stalls at the return-on-investment hurdle.

Economic urgency underpins the initiative: youth unemployment among graduates is hovering near 60 percent. DigiTech therefore measures its own success less by awards than by payrolls—every funded SMME is expected to scale and hire. Parallel policy discussions explore a rand-pegged retail CBDC and blockchain-based clearing to lift intra-African trade above today’s 3 percent baseline, making low-fee, cross-platform payments as easy as USSD airtime transfers.

Minister Soli Malazi, now chair of the WSIS process for 2025-26, frames the mission bluntly: if Africa misses the current AI wave, it will import digital value for another century. By accelerating local talent, leveraging public-private capital and keeping spectrum, satellite and payments regulation aligned, DigiTech aims to turn the continent’s young demographic into a net exporter of code, IP and resilient digital public goods.

https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/stockta...

https://www.itu.int/en/mediacentre/Pa...

My full AI For Good 2025 video coverage is here:    • AI For Good 2025 video coverage  

This video was filmed using the DJI Pocket 3 ($669 at https://amzn.to/4aMpKIC using the dual wireless DJI Mic 2 microphones with the DJI lapel microphone https://amzn.to/3XIj3l8 ), watch all my DJI Pocket 3 videos here    • Filmed with DJI Pocket 3  

Join https://www.youtube.com/charbax/join for Early Access to my videos and to support my work, or you can Click the "Super Thanks" button below the video to send a highlighted comment under the video! Brands I film are welcome to support my work in this way 😁

Check out my video with Daylight Computer about their revolutionary Sunlight Readable Transflective LCD Display for Healthy Learning:    • Daylight Computer CEO interview: Healthy C...