Africa Tech Festival 2026 in Cape Town: dates, venue, speakers and what to watch

Africa Tech Festival returns to the Cape Town International Convention Centre from 17 to 19 November 2026, and it is the biggest week of the African calendar for the people who build and run the continent's connectivity. It is the event formerly known as AfricaCom, now in its 29th edition, and the programme has long since outgrown telecoms alone: data centres, AI, cybersecurity and startup finance now sit alongside the operator agenda.

If you are deciding whether to travel, or briefing a colleague who is going, this is the practical version — the confirmed dates, the venue, who is speaking, and which sessions matter if your job is broadcast distribution rather than enterprise software.

The short version

• Dates: Tuesday 17 to Thursday 19 November 2026.
• Venue: CTICC 1 and CTICC 2, Convention Square, 1 Lower Long Street, Cape Town.
• Former name: AfricaCom. Same annual gathering, rebranded as the show widened beyond telecoms.
• Scope: six pillars — Telecoms & Connectivity, Data Centres, AI, Cybersecurity, Startups and Digital Transformation.
• City context: Cape Town in late November is peak conference season, so accommodation and flights go early.

On the dates: 17–19, not 16–19

Both the festival site and the CTICC event listing publish 17–19 November 2026. Some sponsor and exhibitor pages show 16–19 November, which reflects build-up and exhibitor access rather than the public conference days.

That distinction matters if you are shipping stand equipment: confirm your build slot with the organiser directly rather than relying on a listing, and do not book a crew to arrive on the morning the floor is still being laid.

The six pillars, and what each one is actually about

• Telecoms & Connectivity — spectrum, wholesale capacity, rural coverage and the economics of data pricing. This is the pillar closest to the original AfricaCom programme, and usually the most operator-dense.
• Data Centres — capacity, power, cooling and the land-and-power race behind AI workloads. Expect the sharpest conversations about grid connections rather than floor space.
• AI — models, local-language data and procurement. Watch for the gap between pilot announcements and workloads actually in production.
• Cybersecurity — resilience of payment and identity systems, ransomware against operators, and incident reporting expectations from regulators.
• Startups — the funding pipeline, in a year where African venture totals have recovered unevenly by sector and by stage.
• Digital Transformation — cloud, fintech and SaaS adoption inside large enterprises, which is where most of the actual budget sits.

Speakers worth diarising

The 2026 line-up is unusually heavy on people who own infrastructure rather than people who market it. Confirmed speakers published by the organiser include:

• Hon. Solly Malatsi, Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, South Africa, and Hon. Samuel Nartey George, Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Ghana — the two policy voices most likely to say something about spectrum and data costs that actually lands.
• Charles Molapisi (MTN Group), Mohamed Sami (Vodacom), Elaine Kyalo (Airtel Africa), Mugo Kibati (Telkom Kenya) and Jürgen Peschel (Botswana Telecommunications Corporation) — the operator panel that sets the tone on connectivity economics.
• Abu Wole (Equinix) and Marcel Louw (Digital Realty) — the two people in the room with the clearest view of where African data centre capacity is actually being built.
• Emmanuel Lubanzadio (OpenAI, Africa lead), Kerissa Varma (Microsoft, chief security advisor for Africa) and Robert Koen (Amazon, sub-Saharan Africa) — hyperscaler positioning on AI and security.
• Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa (Naspers and Prosus), Hardy Pemhiwa (Cassava Technologies) and Yasser Shaker (Orange Middle East and Africa) — the investors and groups consolidating African digital infrastructure.
• Caitlin Burton (Zipline) and Vinod Goel (Jumia) — two very different answers to the last-mile question.

The full list is on the festival speaker pages; it is updated as the programme fills.

Why broadcast, satellite and headend teams should care

Three of the six pillars map directly onto the work of running a channel.

Data centres are where headends are going. Playout, transcoding and origin storage are increasingly hosted rather than built on site, and the constraint is no longer rack space — it is power, cooling and the latency between the facility and the uplink. The Data Centres sessions are the place to hear which African metros can actually deliver that.

Connectivity economics decide distribution cost. Whether a channel reaches viewers by satellite, IP or both is a commercial question driven by wholesale capacity pricing, and the operator panels set the frame for the following year's negotiations. If you are modelling a 36°E free-to-view or Hotbird 13°E business case, this is where the inputs come from.

Cybersecurity is now a transmission risk, not an IT one. A headend is operational technology with a corporate network bolted on, and conditional access key management is security-critical infrastructure. For pay-TV operators, the sessions on identity and incident reporting are worth more than the keynote.

Planning the trip from Lagos or Abuja

• Flights. There is no guaranteed daily nonstop between Lagos and Cape Town; many routings connect through Johannesburg or Addis Ababa. November is peak season in the city, so book early and allow a buffer day before the conference opens.
• Visas. South African visa requirements depend on your passport and the purpose of travel. Check the Department of Home Affairs before paying for non-refundable flights, and allow more lead time than the calendar suggests.
• Venue access. The CTICC sits on the Foreshore, roughly 20 km from Cape Town International Airport, served by the MyCiTi bus network and e-hailing.
• Accommodation. The CTICC hosts the Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum on 10–11 November and other events in the same fortnight, so hotels around the convention centre fill before the tech festival begins.
• What to bring. A press pass is not a substitute for a briefing; if you want meetings with operators, book them before you fly. The expo floor is busiest on the middle day.

If you are not travelling

The programme is published, the exhibitor list is public and the announcements land in the trade press within hours. Track the Data Centres and Telecoms pillars if your interest is distribution capacity, and the Cybersecurity track if your interest is conditional access and playout resilience. We will publish a follow-up note on what the operator sessions actually signalled once the conference closes.

Frequently asked questions

Is Africa Tech Festival the same as AfricaCom? Yes. AfricaCom was the anchor telecoms event of the week; the festival is the widened, rebranded programme covering the six pillars above. The 2026 edition is the 29th.

Where exactly is it held? CTICC 1 and CTICC 2 at Convention Square, 1 Lower Long Street, Cape Town, 8001 — two adjacent halls on the Foreshore, not the Cape Town Stadium or the Waterfront.

Do the public days really start on the 17th? Yes, per both the festival and the CTICC. Exhibitor and build access runs earlier, which is why some listings show 16 November.

How much are passes? Pricing is tiered and rises as the event approaches, with different rates for operators, enterprises, startups and exhibitors. Check the official ticket page rather than relying on third-party listings, which are frequently out of date.

Is it useful if I am not a telecom operator? Yes, if you are in broadcast distribution, data centre capacity, payments, cybersecurity or enterprise software. The Data Centres, Cybersecurity and Digital Transformation pillars are built for buyers outside the operator world.

Sources

• Africa Tech Festival — official site and programme
• Africa Tech Festival 2026 sponsors and exhibitors

Event branding and key visual: Africa Tech Festival (Informa), reproduced for editorial coverage of the event.

• CTICC event listing: 17–19 November 2026