Rebecca Stromeyer, founder of eLearning Africa and Managing Director of Berlin-based ICWE, the event’s organisers, commented, "African economies are growing rapidly – some of them at over ten per cent a year. These are exciting times, but the financial sector is missing a trick, and it’s important, if growth is to be maintained, that it should pay proper attention. The education-technology sector is not only crucially important for the future of every African economy, but it also offers some of the most exciting investment opportunities in the world.

"Our conference and exhibition, eLearning Africa, is supported every year by communications and technology companies, entrepreneurs, and providers of education products and services. Unfortunately, the people we hardly ever see are the ones with the most to gain – the banks and financial-services businesses.

"The education sector has become an important part of the economy of many countries. In the United Kingdom, for example, it is the fourth or fifth biggest export sector, and it has grown massively over the last decade. This is because of the multiplicity of new opportunities to spread education by using new communications technology. In Africa, the opportunities are enormous, and the Continent is producing some of the world’s most talented innovators, with great ideas about new products for the education and training sectors. These are the sort of things that can offer huge benefits across the whole economy, and we need to make sure that they get the support they deserve from African banks and finance companies."

A major focus of the Conference will be on support for innovation, and the organisers are hoping to introduce African education entrepreneurs, innovators, and start-ups to new sources of funding and partnership.

"I hope the banks and financial companies will respond to our call to get involved," says Ms Stromeyer. "They’ll find many spectacular new opportunities in this sector."

eLearning Africa 2016 will take place in Cairo, Egypt, from 24-26 May. The annual pan-African event hosts around 1,400 people, over eighty percent of whom are from the sub-Saharan regions.