Strategic Insights to Accelerate Your Business Growth

Jointly developed by Smart Africa and the Data Governance in Africa Team Europe Initiative, the Guidelines are the outcome of groundbreaking collaboration between key project developers, DFIs, and the public sector. Born out of a year of intensive dialogue across the continent's digital infrastructure ecosystem, they are the first framework of their kind to translate Africa's ambitious digital infrastructure agenda into a practical, actionable roadmap for closing the estimated USD 100 billion investment gap needed by 2030.

Rather than treating financing as a one-size-fits-all challenge, the Guidelines diagnose the real constraint behind every stalled deal, is it a funding gap or a financing gap?, before prescribing the instrument.

This is more than a launch, it's the moment the sector moves from guidelines to capital. Attendees will be among the first to see the framework that DFIs, investors, and developers across Africa will be using to structure, de-risk, and close deals for years to come.

Key Note Address: Thelma Quaye and European Delegation in Kenya

Interactive discussion moderated by Regina Vasarais

Africa's digital infrastructure story is at an inflection point. Capital is no longer chasing ambition alone — DFIs and institutional investors are becoming more selective, backing only the markets and projects that can prove stability, clear revenue potential, and models built to scale. The gap between opportunity and investable deals has never been more visible or more urgent to close.

This is where the conversation moves from why to how. Bringing together leading DFIs, including Swedfund, and Finnfund, alongside private investors and project developers, this high-level roundtable pulls back the curtain on how capital is actually flowing into the sector today: which structures are unlocking institutional money, what derisking mechanisms are proving effective, and where the next wave of bankable deals will come from. Whether you're a developer seeking to understand what investors are really looking for, or an investor scouting the next opportunity, this session offers a rare, direct line into the decision-making behind Africa's digital infrastructure capital.

Don't just hear about the future of digital infrastructure financing in Africa — be in the room where it's being shaped

Exclusive access to interactive workshop will introduce four key blended finance instruments relevant to the digital infrastructure sector:

• Concessional debt and equity
• Guarantees
• Technical assistance
• Viability gap funding

Participants will explore how each instrument works, the risks and barriers it can help address, and the types of projects or situations where it is most effective. Real-world blended finance case examples will be used to illustrate how these instruments can be applied in practice.

Forget the theory, this is where real deals get unpacked. Hear directly from the people who took digital infrastructure projects from concept to financial close, as speakers from Tamani Capital and PIDG walk through the transactions themselves: what made them bankable, what nearly derailed them, and exactly what it took to get them over the line.

This is a rare, unfiltered look at deal-making in practice, the structuring decisions, the de-risking instruments deployed, and the negotiations behind the headlines. If you want to understand what separates a project that raises capital from one that stalls, this is the session to be in the room for.

Real transactions. Real numbers. Real lessons — straight from the deal teams who lived them.