ITW Africa Agenda

Start your day with a morning of inspiration at our dedicated Talent in Tech forum. This empowering event will feature leading female voices in the industry sharing their stories and experiences, overcoming challenges and driving dynamic change in an otherwise static sector.

Africa’s growth depends on how governments and industry collaborate to scale connectivity, compute, energy and digital services. Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are emerging as a critical mechanism to align national goals with private-sector innovation, unlock capital, and harmonise policy across borders. 

The regulatory landscape remains one of the most decisive factors shaping Africa’s digital infrastructure growth. Fragmented licensing, unclear rights‑of‑way processes, inconsistent site permitting, and grid‑related approvals continue to slow the rollout of towers, fibre routes, and data centres. These barriers inflate deployment costs, hinder co‑location and open‑access models, and create uncertainty for investors seeking scalable, multi‑sector infrastructure strategies. 

For towercos, fibre operators, hyperscale and edge providers, and energy partners, predictable regulation is essential to enabling shared‑infrastructure buildout, long‑term investment, and cross‑sector coordination. 

Ensuring people, business and governments can use, afford, and benefit from the networks and digital infrastructure that has been built

How policy and regulation shape where networks are built and how investment flows

Exploring how satellite, fibre and mobile networks work together to extend coverage, strengthen resilience and unlock new wholesale partnerships

Open access has long underpinned Africa’s connectivity growth, enabling affordable and efficient use of shared digital infrastructure. Today, the model is being reconsidered as operators consolidate assets, operating costs—especially energy—continue to rise, regulatory scrutiny increases, and cross‑sector ecosystems spanning fibre, power, data centres and edge become more complex. 

This session explores whether open access can still deliver on its original promise. We’ll examine how shifting industry structures, regulatory and commercial pressures, and wider economic challenges are reshaping multi‑tenant approaches and the future of shared infrastructure across the continent.

What recent outages revealed about routing, redundancy and where data is allowed to travel

Understanding the pace and shape of growth across different regions

Why mobile, satellite and terrestrial networks are stronger together

Understanding how new subsea cables are reshaping connectivity, resilience and data centre location decisions

Energy remains one of the biggest operational costs for digital infrastructure operators, from towers to data centres, with fuel and generation expenses rising sharply in recent years. Grid reliability challenges and connection delays continue to slow the rollout of towers, fibre networks, and new data centre capacity. 

This roundtable brings together leaders from across the energy and digital infrastructure ecosystem to discuss how organizations are managing power today, what drives decisions to outsource versus manage energy internally, and what successful energy partnerships now look like in a shifting operational and regulatory environment. 

Why demand, connectivity and policy are shaping clear data centre hubs

As networks mature, African operators are moving beyond pure connectivity into partnerships, platforms and new growth models

• Why reliability and quality matter more than raw generation capacity
• Power as a limiting factor for data centres, fibre and towers
• Why digital infrastructure demand is small but strategically important
• What energy providers need from the digital sector to plan long term

Fibre is no longer greenfield everywhere; where does fibre investment work, where doesn’t it, and why

As Africa's largest digital economy, Nigeria is attracting growing investment across fibre, data centres, cloud and digital infrastructure. This workshop explores the opportunities, challenges and partnerships needed to accelerate connectivity, unlock investment and strengthen Nigeria's position as a leading digital hub for Africa. Participants will gain insight into the policies, infrastructure and capital driving the next phase of growth.  

Key discussion points: 

• Where is investment flowing across Nigeria's digital infrastructure ecosystem? 

• What policy reforms are needed to accelerate deployment? 

• How will Nigeria's 2027 Data Localisation Directive reshape the digital economy, and what opportunities will they create for local cloud, AI and data centre investment? 

• What impact could initiatives such as Project BRIDGE have on expanding digital infrastructure, improving connectivity and accelerating digital inclusion across Nigeria? 

• How can Nigeria strengthen its role as West Africa's digital gateway? 

• What policy reforms are needed to accelerate deployment? 

• How do DCOs and network operators reduce PUE and energy waste
• Intelligent monitoring: using software automation and DCIM to optimise performance
• Integrating grid,diesel and storage for resilient hybrid power models
• Real-time visibility using predictive maintenance, load balancing and cost optimisation

Market structure often determines where fibre delivers lower costs and better resilience

Expected discussion outcomes: 

• Understanding of the key barriers to scaling data centre capacity across Africa 

• Insight into how operators are managing power, costs and reliability 

• Perspectives on which markets are best positioned for future growth 

• Alignment on the role of power, financing, connectivity and partnerships in enabling expansion 

Why solar, storage and hybrid systems are becoming core infrastructure

Regulation determines who can generate, buy and sell power to digital infrastructure

Fibre economics vary by layer; where are returns made, where aren’t they and how are projects financed?

• Why grid expansion alone won’t meet digital demand
• The role of anchor digital infrastructure customers
• Renewables, gas and hybrid models supporting DC growth
• Building local skills and supply chains

How companies can identify, prioritise and operationalise real AI use cases that enhance infrastructure performance, optimise operations and unlock value across African markets

Across West Africa, governments, telecom operators, cloud and data centre developers, energy partners and investors are accelerating efforts to expand digital infrastructure, unlock new economic value and strengthen digital sovereignty. From national broadband plans and open access fibre policies to hyperscaler interest, AI-ready data centres, satellite integration and hybrid power solutions, the region is rapidly moving from planning to execution. 

The DIF Catapult Accelerator is a platform for infrastructure project developers from across the African continent. 

The objective of this program is to create the basis for a better project development outcome on the Continent - reducing timelines and uncertainty to financial close, and increasing scale and improving the risk-reward balance between public and private sector. 

Building the Next Generation of Mobile Services: Where MVNO, Mobile Money and Digital Services Converge 

As African mobile markets mature, MVNOs are finding success not just through connectivity, but through the services they enable. From mobile money and embedded finance to digital platforms and customer engagement tools, new partnership models are emerging between operators, MVNOs and fintech providers. 

This workshop will explore how these models are evolving, where the commercial opportunities lie, and what it takes to build a sustainable business in an increasingly competitive market. 

A practical session for the industry  to design real pathways into the industry – not just discuss the skills gap.

This panel will be practical and relatable for students and new graduates. 

In markets where mobile is the primary customer channel, protecting trust across voice calls and messaging is critical for long-term growth.

How enterprise messaging in Africa is evolving as brands move away from pure A2P SMS towards CPaaS platforms, OTT channels and multi‑channel engagement models – and what this means for operators, aggregators and enterprises. 

How pricing models, termination rates and regulatory shifts are shaping the commercial future of voice and messaging in Africa  

The keynote will translate strategy into operating reality: how leaders make trade-offs across network design, capital allocation, customer demand, regulatory approvals, power resilience, service assurance and multi-country operations.