Safetech Innovations, the first Romanian company to organize a hacking competition in Africa
Bucharest, May 4, 2026 – Safetech Innovations (BVB: SAFE), a national leader in cybersecurity, organized, for the first time outside Romania, the “Capture the Flag” hacking competition at the Connected Africa Summit 2026, one of the most important technology and digital innovation forums on the African continent, held in Nairobi (Kenya) from 27 to 30 April 2026.
The company’s participation in the summit also provided an opportunity to meet with high-level officials and IT&C ministers from Kenya, Malawi, Liberia, and Uganda, as part of broader efforts to explore international markets, with discussions highlighting a clear openness to collaboration from these countries in the field of cybersecurity.
“Nairobi confirmed that there is strong interest and significant potential for cybersecurity in Africa. We are proud to have contributed, alongside the Kenyan authorities, to identifying talented young individuals in this field. We are also encouraged by the concrete interest in collaboration expressed by the representatives of the countries we met, a sign that Safetech’s expertise is recognized and appreciated internationally. In this context, our participation in the Connected Africa Summit also provided us with the opportunity to develop new business directions on the African continent,” stated Ionuț Georgescu, CEO of Safetech Innovations.
Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions are some of the most widely used practical formats for testing and developing cybersecurity skills, where participants solve a series of technical challenges that simulate real-life cyber attack and defense scenarios. These can include identifying vulnerabilities in applications, decrypting messages, analyzing network traffic or exploiting controlled computer systems. The aim is to identify “flags” – hidden clues in the systems being analyzed – with each solution scoring points for the participating teams. Such competitions contribute directly to training specialists capable of responding to real-world cyber threats.
The competition, organized in partnership with the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy of Kenya, included challenges tailored to university-level participants and structured across multiple levels of difficulty to progressively assess their technical skills. The initiative aimed to identify and encourage young talent in cybersecurity and was met with strong interest from the local academic community. A total of 60 student teams from Kenya registered for the competition, of which 15 were selected for the final stage.
Premiile au fost înmânate de ES Hon. William Kabogo Gitaū, Ministrul Informațiilor, Comunicațiilor și Economiei Digitale, ES Gențiana Șerbu, Ambasadoarea României în Republica Kenya, și Ionuț Georgescu, Directorul General al Safetech Innovations. Evenimentul a contribuit la consolidarea vizibilității Safetech Innovations pe piețele internaționale și la poziționarea companiei ca partener relevant în dezvoltarea ecosistemelor de securitate cibernetică emergente.
