Eight sessions to watch at ITW Africa 2026 - Capacity
ITW Africa returns to Nairobi from 7-10 September, running ITW and Datacloud tracks alongside dedicated summits on fibre, energy, voice and messaging, and investment. With the agenda now confirmed, these are the sessions likely to shape the conversation across the continent's connectivity and data centre sectors.
05 August 20264 minutesITW Africa returns to Nairobi from 7-10 September, running ITW and Datacloud tracks alongside dedicated summits on fibre, energy, voice and messaging, and investment. Saf MalikSenior Content and Insights ManagerWith the agenda now confirmed, these are the sessions likely to shape the conversation across the continent’s connectivity and data centre sectors. Africa’s Moment to Deliver Digital Infrastructure at ScaleITW Keynote Stage, 8 SeptemberThe opening keynote panel brings together Wole Abu (Equinix), Andile Ngcaba (Convergence Partners), Adil El Youssefi (Africa Data Centres) and Chris Wood (WIOCC), chaired by Silvia Peneva. The session asks how the continent turns strong foundations in connectivity and investment into large-scale, sustainable delivery, a question that frames much of what follows across the week. Realising the First Wave of Data Centre DemandDatacloud Keynote Stage, 8 SeptemberChaired by Johann Adjovi of Analysys Mason, this panel brings together iXAfrica, Open Access Data Centres, Wingu Africa and UniCloudAfrica to test whether the capacity already built is being matched by real demand. Given how much capital has gone into African data centre construction over the past two years, this is a useful reality check. The Future of Sharing: Is Open Access Under Threat in Africa’s Digital Infra Market?Mount Elgon Ballroom, 8 SeptemberA McKinsey-chaired session examining whether the open access model that has underpinned African connectivity growth can survive a period of consolidation, rising energy costs and tighter regulatory scrutiny. With Infratel and AIIM represented, expect a frank discussion of whether shared infrastructure still works commercially as operators consolidate assets. Resilience, Routing and Data Sovereignty in African NetworksITW Keynote Stage, 8 SeptemberSpeakers from WIOCC, Google, Digital Realty and Cassava Technologies address what recent outages revealed about routing, redundancy and where data is allowed to travel. This is one of the more concrete sessions on the agenda, built directly around real incidents rather than forward-looking speculation. Regulatory Roundtable: Regulation That BuildsMount Elgon Ballroom, 8 SeptemberChaired by Temitope Osunrinde of Africa Hyperscalers, this roundtable brings regulators from Nigeria’s Data Protection Commission, NITDA, ATCON and ICASA together to address fragmented licensing, unclear rights-of-way and inconsistent permitting, the barriers most often cited as slowing tower, fibre and data centre rollout across the continent. Fireside Chat: Why Power is the Foundation of Digital GrowthDatacloud Keynote Stage, 9 SeptemberDC Byte’s Christian Tshishiku chairs a discussion on why reliability and quality of power supply matter more than raw generation capacity, and what energy providers need from the digital sector to plan long term. Power reliability, rather than construction, is the recurring constraint across nearly every session on this stage. How African Data Centre Markets Mature / Where Data Centres are Scaling Across AfricaDatacloud Keynote Stage, 8 SeptemberTwo connected panels, the first chaired by ConnectedCompute’s Milan Radia with Rack Centre and Teraco, the second chaired by Xalam Analytics’ Guy Zibi with Equinix and Raxio, map out the pace and shape of data centre growth across different African regions and what’s driving clear hub formation. Workshop: Nigeria’s Digital Infrastructure OpportunityITW Keynote Stage, 9 SeptemberWith Nigeria’s 2027 Data Localisation Directive on the horizon, this workshop looks at where investment is flowing across the country’s digital infrastructure ecosystem and what policy reforms are needed to accelerate deployment. Given Nigeria’s position as Africa’s largest digital economy, the directive alone is worth a standalone explainer ahead of the event. Full agenda:https://www. internationaltelecomsweekafrica. com/agendaJoin us at the event. RELATED STORIESAfrica’s digital infrastructure ambition has a power problemHow mobile tech is key to Africa’s digital transformation boomDatacloud Africa 202607 September 2026Saf MalikSenior Content and Insights Manager