Expo & Content Sessions: 17 - 19 Nov 2026
VIP & Partner Events: 16 -19 Nov 2026
Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town
News and Insights
10 Minutes on AI
Four leaders on what Africa already knows about AI, and what it does with that next
Ask the global AI industry where Africa sits on its map, and you will usually get one of two answers: a market to be reached, or a gap to be closed. Ask four people actually building with AI on the continent, and you get something else entirely.
Meet the panel:
- Caitlin Burton , CEO, Zipline Africa
- Charles Murito , Regional Director, Government Affairs and Public Policy, Sub-Saharan Africa, Google
- Lavina Ramkissoon (Amb. Dr. ) , Ambassador and Co-Chair, AU-ASRIC and AU-Sixth Region, African Union
- Joost Pielage, Chief Technology Officer, Quro Medical
We gave each of them ten minutes and the same five questions: what people get wrong about AI in Africa, where it can have the greatest impact, what it will take for the continent to move from adoption to leadership, what they're watching most closely, and what role events like Africa Tech Festival play in getting there. Here is what they told us.
10 Minutes on Cybersecurity
As Africa undergoes rapid digital transformation, the continent faces a cybersecurity landscape that is both complex and evolving. Ahead of the Africa Tech Festival this November, three industry leaders, Dr. Harrison Nnaji, Chief Information Security Officer at First Bank Nigeria; Obed Agyarko Frimpong, Chief Information Security Officer at First National Bank Ghana; and Dr. Alfred Musarurwa, Chief Technology and Operations Officer at Stanbic Bank Zimbabwe, share their unfiltered insights on the challenges, successes, and critical conversations shaping Africa’s digital resilience.
An Africa Tech Festival Story
Every year, Africa Tech Festival brings together the people building Africa's digital future, on stages, in exhibition halls, and in the conversations that happen in between. Sometimes those conversations change a life. That's exactly what happened to Mpumelelo Pinky Mbhamali.
Pinky is a Systems Administrator at Edunova_SA , an AWS Community Builder, and the founder of Sip And Cloud Tech, a community she built to bring cloud computing, AI, cybersecurity, and digital inclusion to communities across South Africa. She first came to Africa Tech Festival in 2024, and it was her second visit to the festival, this time as part of the CAPACITI programme through UVU Africa, that changed the course of her career.
We asked Pinky to share her story, in her own words.
10 Minutes on Digital Transformation
Digital transformation across Africa is often talked about in broad strokes. But what does it actually look like from inside the boardroom, the server room and the customer experience desk?
We sat down with two senior technology leaders, Nirvani Dhevcharran, CTO: Platforms and Operations at TFG (The Foschini Group), and Mandla Mbasane , Acting Chief Information Officer at National Housing Finance Corporation Ltd, to find out where the real progress is happening, what's holding the continent back, and what needs to happen next.