His Excel­lency the Pres­id­ent Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta, C.G.H. offi­cially launched the 2015 Global Entre­pren­eur­ship Sum­mit (GES) on 9^thJune, 2015. The event that was filled with eager young entre­pren­eurs, sought to show­case and dis­cuss innov­a­tion in Kenya. Accom­pan­ied by the Cab­inet Sec­ret­ary for Devol­u­tion and Plan­ning, Ms. Anne Wai­guru, the pres­id­ent dis­cussed areas the gov­ern­ment hopes to work on to strengthen innov­a­tion in a coun­try full of great poten­tial. Busi­ness founders show­cased their pro­jects, while urging the pres­id­ent to con­sider entre­pren­eurs hol­ist­ic­ally and strive to boost the régime.

Organ­ized annu­ally since 2009, the GES has emerged as a global plat­form con­nect­ing emer­ging entre­pren­eurs with lead­ers from busi­nesses, inter­na­tional organ­iz­a­tions, and gov­ern­ments look­ing to sup­port them. This will be the first time the GES will take place in sub-​Saharan Africa. This year’s sum­mit is sched­uled to take place in Kenya, with U.S. Pres­id­ent Bar­rack Obama expec­ted to grace the aus­pi­cious occasion.

Pres­id­ent Uhuru Kenyatta, had the chance of vis­it­ing and meet­ing Innov­at­ors from @ILabAfrica Research cen­ter and @iBizAfrica incub­a­tion cen­ter.He was show­cased the vari­ous pro­jects @iLabAfrica is involved with includ­ing Sys­tems Secur­ity, County Rev­enue Col­lec­tion Sys­tems, Girls in Tech­no­logy, Kenya Law App , KNBS Data Vis­tu­al­iz­a­tion Plat­form among other pro­jects. He also had the oppor­tun­ity to meet young entre­pren­eurs whose star­tups are cur­rently incub­ated @iBizAfrica . These included Magazine Reel, Sufuria​.com, Valuraha, Buymore,Signs media, Ent mobile, School Mas­ters among other star­tups had an oppor­tun­ity to show­case their pro­jects and book key appoint­ments with the gov­ern­ment office.

Accen­tu­at­ing the fact that Kenya is full of great entre­pren­eurs in his address, Pres­id­ent Uhuru encour­aged com­pan­ies to identify the poten­tial in the coun­try and tap into it. The pres­id­ent also dis­cussed the role the gov­ern­ment is play­ing in encour­aging this great seg­ment of the coun­try, prom­ising young entre­pren­eurs that he will cre­ate a forum where the private sec­tor, pub­lic sec­tor and investors will dis­cuss the future of entre­pren­eurs. Pres­id­ent Uhuru also urged investors to pick on invent­ors in the coun­try stat­ing that it is not fair that young poten­tial entre­pren­eurs have to seek an audi­ence else­where, “I’m dis­ap­poin­ted by our inab­il­ity to tap into the great ideas we have loc­ally. The best entre­pren­eurs in the world are clearly look­ing at what is hap­pen­ing in Kenya.”

CS Anne Wai­guru spoke of the poten­tial in Africa and Kenya affirm­ing that there is a lot of poten­tial in the coun­try that needs to be tapped into. Ms. Wai­guru also men­tioned that Kenya is ranked among the top coun­tries with poten­tial for invest­ment in Africa. “Kenya is a key driver of eco­nomic sta­bil­ity in Africa,” she said. In his wel­com­ing address, Dean of Strath­more Busi­ness School and DVC Research Strath­more Uni­ver­sity Dr. George Njenga, lauded Kenya for the upcom­ing GES con­fer­ence, stat­ing that Strath­more is rich with innov­at­ors who are ready to work with pres­id­ent and serve the coun­try. “At Strath­more we have good war­ri­ors ready to serve you and your gov­ern­ment,” Dr. Njenga emphasized.

To access pho­tos of this great event kindly check here.