It gives me great pleasure to join you today as we formally introduce the Africa Technology Leadership Conference (ATLC) 2026.
Allow me, at the outset, to recognise the partnership between the State Department for Science, Research and Innovation, in the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, INVIGENCE Limited and all the institutions supporting this important continental initiative.
I also thank members of the media for joining us. You play an indispensable role in helping citizens understand how science, research and innovation affect food security, healthcare, education, employment, national security and economic competitiveness.
Today, Kenya is placing science, research, innovation and technology diplomacy at the centre of an important continental conversation.
The Africa Technology Leadership Conference will take place on 22 and 23 October 2026 at the Argyle Hotel in Nairobi. It is expected to bring together more than 3,500 decision-level participants from government, diplomacy, academia, research, development finance, investment and industry.
This is not merely another technology conference.
It is a leadership and decision-making platform organised around one defining question:
How does Africa convert its science, research and technology ambitions into sustained economic, diplomatic and strategic advantage?
That is the question before us.
The evidence demands action.
The need for this conversation is not based on perception alone. It is supported by evidence.
According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, global expenditure on research and development reached approximately 1.92 per cent of global GDP in 2023. In Sub-Saharan Africa, it stood at only 0.38 per cent.
Globally, there were approximately 1,486 researchers for every one million people. Sub-Saharan Africa had only 88 researchers per million people, compared with more than 4,300 researchers per million people in Europe and Northern America.
These are not merely differences in statistics.
They represent differences in our capacity to generate knowledge, develop medicines, improve agricultural productivity, design advanced technologies, strengthen industries and respond to emergencies.
Ultimately, they represent differences in economic competitiveness and global influence.
We must therefore ask ourselves:
Can Africa become technologically competitive while investing less than half of one per cent of its economic output in research?
Can we build technological sovereignty without sufficiently investing in researchers, engineers, laboratories and scientific institutions?
Can we commercialise innovation without patient capital, effective intellectual-property systems, access to markets and strong partnerships with industry?
And can Africa influence the global governance of artificial intelligence, data and other emerging technologies if we do not possess the scientific capability to participate from a position of strength?
ATLC 2026 must help us move from asking these questions to agreeing on practical responses.
From consumption to creation
Africa’s technology challenge is not simply about whether we have mobile phones, digital applications or internet connections.
It is about whether we possess the knowledge, institutions, infrastructure and capital required to create, adapt, own and govern technology.
The International Telecommunication Union estimates that only 36 per cent of Africa’s population was using the internet in 2025. In practical terms, almost two out of every three Africans remained offline.
That digital divide must concern us.
But access alone is not enough.
We must also ask who owns the platforms our citizens use, who controls the infrastructure, who develops the algorithms, where African data is stored and who derives economic value from that data.
We must ask whether African languages, cultures, realities and development priorities are adequately represented in the technologies being developed.
Africa cannot build strategic advantage by remaining only a market for technologies created elsewhere.
We must become creators, producers, owners and exporters of technology.
We must move from consuming knowledge to generating it.
We must move from exporting raw data to creating value from it.
We must move from importing finished technologies to developing and commercialising African solutions.
And we must move from observing global technology negotiations to helping shape the rules, standards and governance frameworks that will define our future.
This does not mean isolating ourselves from the world.
Science has always advanced through cooperation.
It means entering international partnerships with sufficient knowledge, institutional capability and confidence to protect our interests and advance shared prosperity.
Kenya’s position.
Kenya enters this conversation with significant strengths.
According to the 2026 Economic Survey, Kenya’s economy grew by 4.6 per cent in 2025, while the information and communication sector expanded by 4.8 per cent. This demonstrates the continuing contribution of technology and digital services to our national economy.
The Global Innovation Index 2025 also identifies Kenya’s strength in ICT-services exports, where the country ranked 19th globally, and in venture-capital deals received relative to the size of the economy, where Kenya ranked 27th.
These results confirm Kenya’s position as an entrepreneurial centre, a technology-services economy and an important destination for innovation investment.
However, the same evidence shows that Kenya ranks 124th in human capital and research. This is not a reason for pessimism. It is a clear national assignment.
Our entrepreneurial energy must be matched by deeper scientific capability.
Our strength in digital services must be complemented by strength in advanced research.
Our ability to attract investment must be accompanied by the ability to finance scientific innovations that may require longer periods to reach the market.
We must therefore strengthen the entire innovation pipeline:
From education to research.
From research to invention.
From invention to intellectual property.
From intellectual property to enterprise.
And from enterprise to domestic, regional and international markets.
Research and innovation diplomacy
Ladies and gentlemen,
Technology is no longer simply a technical issue.
It is a foreign-policy issue.
It is a trade issue.
It is an investment issue.
It is a national-security issue.
And it is a development issue.
The global competition for artificial-intelligence capability, scientific talent, data infrastructure, advanced computing and critical technology supply chains demonstrates that science and technology have become instruments of international influence.
The ATLC 2026 concept recognises that artificial intelligence, data governance, cybersecurity and technology standards are increasingly contested international matters. It also identifies Kenya’s opportunity to provide leadership in Africa’s research, innovation and technology-diplomacy agenda.
For Kenya, research and innovation diplomacy means using our researchers, universities, scientific institutions and intellectual assets to advance national and continental interests.
It means using diplomacy to facilitate joint research, attract investment into laboratories and technology enterprises, secure access to advanced scientific infrastructure, connect Kenyan researchers to global knowledge networks and open markets for Kenyan innovations.
It also means ensuring that Kenya and Africa participate meaningfully in shaping international standards governing artificial intelligence, biotechnology, data, cybersecurity and other emerging technologies.
The objective is not cooperation for its own sake.
The objective is cooperation that creates capability.
We need partnerships that transfer knowledge, not only finished products.
We need partnerships that develop African researchers, engineers and innovators.
We need partnerships that support intellectual-property creation and shared commercial value.
And we need partnerships that leave behind stronger African institutions.
Nairobi is already an important meeting point for governments, diplomatic missions, international organisations, investors, researchers and technology companies.
ATLC 2026 should build on this position and strengthen Kenya’s role as a continental centre for science, research, innovation and technology diplomacy.
From research to enterprise.
Our universities and research institutions are producing valuable knowledge in agriculture, health, energy, biotechnology, climate science, engineering, education and digital technology.
However, too much promising research fails to move beyond publication, proof of concept or pilot stage.
The distance between the laboratory and the marketplace remains too wide.
We must build stronger bridges between researchers and entrepreneurs, universities and industry, innovators and investors, scientific institutions and policymakers, and African solutions and international markets.
Research commercialisation cannot remain a peripheral activity.
Researchers must be supported to protect intellectual property, license technologies, establish enterprises and collaborate with industry.
Universities must remain centres of scholarship, but they must also become centres of solution development, technology transfer and enterprise creation.
The private sector must equally recognise universities and research institutions as partners in product development, competitiveness and industrial growth.
Investment in local research is not charity.
It is an investment in productivity, competitiveness and long-term economic growth.
We must also recognise that different innovations require different financing models.
A digital application may enter the market within months. A new seed variety, diagnostic technology, industrial material or biotechnology product may require years of research, testing and regulatory approval.
We therefore need patient capital, blended finance and procurement systems capable of supporting innovations from research to commercial scale.
We must bring capital closer to knowledge.
We must bring industry closer to research.
And we must bring markets closer to African innovation.
The four strategic pillars.
ATLC 2026 is organised around four interconnected pillars.
The first is Technology Diplomacy and Leadership: how African governments can use science, research and technology as instruments of foreign policy, cooperation, market access and continental influence.
The second is Capital, Investment and Technology Infrastructure: how public, private and blended capital can finance research, commercialisation and resilient technology systems at scale.
The third is Execution and Institutional Capability: how we translate policies and strategies into durable institutions, functioning platforms and services that deliver results.
The fourth is Trust, Data and Technology Resilience: how we strengthen cybersecurity, data governance, responsible innovation, institutional resilience and public trust.
Without trust, citizens will resist technology.
Without secure infrastructure, digital progress will remain vulnerable.
And without accountable institutions, technological advancement may deepen inequality instead of expanding opportunity.
These pillars reflect some of the most consequential decisions African leaders must make during the coming decade.
A conference measured by results.
ATLC 2026 must not become a gathering where excellent speeches are delivered, photographs are taken and participants return home without responsibility for implementation.
Its success will not be measured by the prominence of the participants alone.
It will be measured by the quality of decisions made.
By the capital mobilised.
By the research partnerships established.
By the innovations that move towards commercialisation.
And ultimately, by the value delivered to the people of Africa.
The expected outcomes include an ATLC 2026 Communiqué, commissioned research and policy papers, a compendium of bilateral cooperation and partnership frameworks, and a year-round programme of leadership laboratories, diplomacy workshops, policy dialogues and sector-focused forums.
The communiqué must become a framework of commitments.
The policy papers must provide practical options for governments and institutions.
And the partnerships presented must move beyond ceremonial agreements to produce investments, programmes, enterprises and measurable results.
The conference will last two days.
The responsibility for implementation must continue throughout the year.
A call to leadership.
To African governments:
Let us place science, research and innovation at the centre of national development. Let us provide predictable financing, strengthen institutions and create environments in which researchers and innovators can succeed.
To universities and research institutions:
Academic excellence remains fundamental, but our responsibility cannot end with publication. Research must increasingly demonstrate relevance, application and impact.
To the private sector, investors and development finance institutions:
Become active partners in building Africa’s scientific capability. Invest in local research, provide patient capital and help promising innovations move from laboratories to markets.
To our international partners:
Africa welcomes cooperation. But let us build partnerships that strengthen local institutions, develop African talent, support shared ownership and create enduring value.
To Africa’s young people:
You are not merely beneficiaries of the technological future.
You are its architects.
Our responsibility is to create the environment in which your ideas can become solutions, enterprises and employment opportunities.
And to members of the media:
Help make science understandable and relevant to society. Tell the stories of African researchers and innovators, interrogate how research resources are used and hold institutions accountable for translating commitments into results.
Conclusion.
Africa stands at an important threshold.
The fact that Sub-Saharan Africa invests only 0.38 per cent of GDP in research and development demonstrates the distance we must travel.
But Africa’s researchers, innovators, young people, institutions and expanding markets demonstrate what is possible.
What is required now is leadership.
Leadership that aligns ambition with investment.
Leadership that connects research with enterprise.
Leadership that uses diplomacy to build capability.
Leadership that moves institutions from pilots to scale.
And leadership that is accountable for measurable results.
ATLC 2026 gives us an opportunity to bring together those who govern, those who research, those who innovate, those who finance and those who implement.
It gives us an opportunity to align science with diplomacy.
To align innovation with capital.
To align technology with national and continental development.
And to align ambition with execution.
Let the message from this press conference be clear:
Africa is not waiting for its technological future to be designed elsewhere.
Africa is ready to help design that future.
Kenya does not seek merely to host a conversation about technology.
Kenya seeks to help shape Africa’s science, research, innovation and technology agenda.
I therefore invite governments, diplomatic missions, universities, research institutions, development partners, investors, industry leaders, innovators and members of the media to participate actively in the Africa Technology Leadership Conference 2026.
Let us move:
From ambition to execution.
From research to enterprise.
From innovation to measurable impact.
And from technology adoption to strategic African leadership.
It is now my honour to affirm the Government of Kenya’s support for the Africa Technology Leadership Conference 2026 and to invite you to join us as we unveil the conference brand and formally commence the journey towards October.
I thank you.
God bless you.
God bless the Republic of Kenya.
And God bless Africa.
