By Michael P. Bruno,
Washtech.com Staff Writer
Friday, March 23, 2001; 6:00 PM

The Africa Technology Forum, a District-based non-profit organization dedicated to growing technology in Africa and encouraging African entrepreneurship, Thursday night unveiled three new initiatives to help that continent bridge the Digital Divide.

The group will promote a mass information and education campaign in Africa touting the benefits of technology, a campaign to increase the number of technology professionals via training programs and a project to work with African countries to create or change their infrastructure and laws to foster high technology.

The new initiatives were outlined at WorldSpace Corp. in Washington, D.C., during the first networking reception sponsored by the Forum. Dozens of attendees turned out for the session in which Reggie Aggarwal, CEO of Arlington-based Cvent, spoke about creating the Indian CEO High Tech Council, a Washington-area networking group that he helped form.

The Forum expects to host similar gatherings every two to three months. Rebecca Enonchong, founder and CEO of Bethesda-based AppsTech Inc. and the Forum's leader, said the Forum hopes to achieve charitable-organization status with the Internal Revenue Service within a month. With three workers borrowed from AppsTech working full time for it, the Forum has been able to keep costs down with participating members stepping in to cover costs as necessary, she added.

Other founding members include Noah Samara, chairman and CEO of WorldSpace; Alberto Olympio, cofounder and technical director of Galaxie Informatique International; Amadou Mahtar Ba, president of allAfrica.com; Samuel Suraphel, founder and CEO of i3afri Global Inc.; and Leslie Noukelak, COO of AfricaToday.com.

Enonchong estimated that the Forum, started last October, has spent around $25,000 of its members' individual funds to date. "It's really been a joint effort," she said.