Africa Tech Festival has named the first speakers for its 29th edition, and the list is weighted towards the people writing the cheques for Africa’s AI and data centre build-out rather than the people theorising about it.
The event, which runs in Cape Town, South Africa, said on 3 August 2026 that Solly Malatsi, South Africa’s Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, will headline. His department is a strategic partner of the festival. Registration for the 2026 edition opened at the CTICC in April.
Who is on the bill
The hyperscalers are represented by Alex Okosi, managing director for Africa at Google, and Robert Koen, managing director for sub-Saharan Africa at Amazon. Marcel Louw, Digital Realty’s managing director for Africa, covers the data centre side.
The most notable name is Emmanuel Lubanzadio, listed as Africa Lead at OpenAI, who is billed to speak on AI adoption and readiness across African markets. A dedicated Africa lead on a Cape Town stage is a more concrete signal of intent than the partnership announcements that have characterised most AI-in-Africa news so far.
Telecoms is covered by Enzo Scarcella, chief consumer officer at MTN Group, Norbert Prihoda, chief executive of Tunisie Telecom, and Daddy Yogo Ngbabendo, group vice president for solutions and architecture at Airtel Africa. Enterprise buyers are represented by Thato Sopeng of Sasol and Linda Oniwe of Standard Bank Group.
Why the mix matters
The line-up tracks where capital is actually moving: AI infrastructure, cloud platforms, subsea cables, fibre and data centres. Pairing a minister with an OpenAI country lead, two hyperscalers and a data centre operator on the same programme reflects how closely African AI capacity now depends on policy decisions and physical infrastructure landing together.
David Monaghan, vice president of Africa Tech Festival, said the pace of collaboration across industries was what stood out this year, with investment flowing and partnerships forming. The organisers said further ministers, enterprise CIOs, operators and investors will be announced in the coming months.
This is a developing story. We will update as more information becomes available.
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