Dear Excellency, as I’m a messenger, I have to read the full message of His Excellency Dr. Sid Ultra, the President of BADIA. Your Excellency Kassim Majaliwa (M.P), Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, Your Excellencies, honourable ministers, Her Excellence Nardos B. Thomas of AUDA-NEPAD, distinguished guests, and members of the ICT and A.I community. Dear Winners of the Competition of Intelligence and Robotics, all protocol duly respected/observed.

I have to convey the apologies of His Excellency Dr. Sid, the President of BADIA, for not being able to attend this important gathering due to engagements in Saudi Arabia. He would like to convey to the Government his high appreciation and the commitment of BADIA on this important event with a diamond sponsorship for the inaugural competition, which speaks volume of the bank’s commitment to promoting knowledge and capacity-building development for ICT Infrastructure. Your Excellency, please kindly convey our appreciation to Her Excellency Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of BADIA, and the United Republic of Tanzania was our first partner in 1974 with the National Maize Production Unit that we financed. Since then, we have financed numerous projects, including the Yungan Zanzibar Road Project, the Bukombe Isaka Road Project, and the State University of Zanzibar. Our cumulative portfolio of financing in Tanzania now stands at half a billion dollars by April, 2024.

In 2022 BADIA brought Saudi and Omani investors through the private window to meet the private sector community in Tanzania. BADIA’s commitment to SADC was marked by the signing of an MOU with SADC in Zimbabwe on the 15th of August 2024 in the merging of the SADC State Meeting. This signifies BADIA's legacy of financing 400 projects worth over 2 billion dollars, in addition to 8 Billion Dollars worth of projects from the Arab Coordination Group members, Islamic Development Bank among other members.

On 21st July, 2024, in the AU Meeting, BADIA launched the Arab Africa Financial Consortium under the leadership of Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo, marking our commitment to further social and economic development. A team is currently in Zanzibar financing the State University of Zanzibar, and we look forward to more projects that support Tanzania’s social and economic development.

His Excellency Dr. Sid wishes to express his high appreciation to the government of Tanzania and looks forward to financially supporting further socio-economic development projects while wishing the AI and robotics competitors success in the conference.

Finally Dr. Sid wishes the youth and the A.I competitors a successful conference.