One such example is Cape Town, which has firmly established itself as a hub for technology and communications in South Africa and is leading the way on the African Continent too.  The latest round of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) totalling some R103 billion (around USD5.7B) received in August this year, further reinforces just why Africa Tech Festival selected Cape Town as its home some 25 years ago.

Remarking on Cape Town's growth as an investment destination and technology & communications hub, Alderman James Vos, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth at the City of Cape Town, said: "On behalf of the City government, we are proud and excited to welcome the Africa Tech Festival back to Cape Town. We strive to maintain our status as the destination of choice for innovators wanting to launch bold ideas. This is why the City funds programmes that help to upskill Capetonians for this sector.

"Through industry partners such as the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative, we have enabled start-ups and people across the metro in accessing information resources for professional growth. Technology is a key driver and enabler of economic opportunities at an individual and community level and I look forward to hearing about solutions that will allow for that, particularly for the regions of our continent that need it most."

James Williams, Director, Events | Connecting Africa | Informa Tech, commenting on Africa Tech Festival's evolution over the years, said: "Even with a crystal ball, I am not sure we could have predicted quite how exponential the growth of technology and its influence on everyday life has become, or that the event would continue to expand at the rate it has, helping industry and governments to connect the dots that ultimately benefit the people of the continent,"

"However, what is clear, is that technology's impact on economic sustainability is gaining ground, which is why there is an emphasis on policy and regulation across all streams at this year's event."

All on the same page together

Taking heed of this directive for the event - to incorporate the necessary conversations on these topics and to promote further co-operation and collaboration between all parties - here are some of the key sessions that should be diarized:

'Coopetition': A New Model for Shared Infrastructure in Africa - Infra 2.0: unpacking the value of more formal approaches to research, investment & knowledge sharing for Africa's telecoms industries, one which integrates government policy early-stage. Sharing insights on this topic are Olusegun Okuneye, Divisional CEO of ipNX Business, and Samuel Kwabena Nkrumah, Head, Transmission & TransportAirtelTigo Ghana as well as Benoit Denis, Senior Economist, European Investment Bank and Dr. Miriam Altman, Director: Altman Advisory & Professor of 4IR Practice, University of Johannesburg.

Happening on Tuesday 8 November is a panel entitled, Sustainable digitization: Building socio-ecologically responsible policy for the new Digital Africa.  This will include a discussion exploring how the development of the African-European Partnership, established in 2020, can use the EU's 150 billion to help build policy around tackling climate change across the continent. Leading these conversations are Olamide Oguntoye, Policy Lead - Climate Innovation at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, along with Olunfunso Somorin, African Development Bank and Seja Kekana from Nedbank.
Progressive policy is the foundation for any country seeking to embrace the 4IR and create a digital economy. The role of regulation is just as vital in ensuring laws are equitable and pragmatic.  Regulation is also key to enabling fintech to reach its full potential and ensuring it offers protection to the consumer.  As a result, the upcoming Panel on Regulating Fintech in Africa: will be key to explore and deliver answers to the challenges of building robust policies for the sector, will explore Regulatory Convergence.  

Furthermore, rising cybercrime, ransomware, and digital identity theft pose significant threats: in 2021 alone, cybercrime reduced GDPs across Africa by 10%, resulting in a $4 billion loss. This trend is affecting trust in the digital space. A lack of regional wide policies on cybersecurity are creating opportunities for cybercriminals to infiltrate systems, and there will be several panels to examine what needs to happen for stakeholders to respond to the increase of cyber-attacks across the continent, including one on African Union's Agenda 2063 and another on Developing Effective Policies and Data Governance Frameworks to Deliver West African Digital Potentials that will seek to answer questions such as should there be a Pan-African cybersecurity framework, and how effective is the AU Cybersecurity Expert Group provide guidance to these governments to ratify policies?

Who owns your data?

In a panel: Developing Effective Policies and Data Governance Frameworks to Deliver West African Digital Potentials, West African regulators and policy makers will demonstrate how they are advancing the region's digital transformation and data governance frameworks, while exploring the process of creating and implementing fit-for-purpose tech policy, are assessed.

On Wednesday, November 9, a detailed discussion will tackle what Governments across the continent can do to encourage the acceleration of data centres built in Africa, especially important, given that

Africa accounts for less than 1% of the world's co-location data centre supply.   

Localising data is also a key issue for Africans and government incentives to develop special economic zones and industrial parks which provide tax exemptions for data centers could go a long way to help.  Google, for example, has recently announced it would be setting up a cloud-hosted data centre region in South Africa.  What more needs to be done to see Africans' data remain with them?  Keen to know more, then make a date to attend, Fireside chat: Battling Africa's whitespace capacity issue.

What of tomorrow?

The 4IR has already transformed Africa. This is, however, only part of the story.

Looking ahead, is a panel: Going Global: African Tech's Place on the International Stage.  Taking place on Wednesday, November 9, this session investigates the urgent priorities that remain for the continent, and how collaboration is crucial for ensuring it takes its rightful place on the global tech stage. The discussion will also unveil how modern solutions and partnerships can address heritage infrastructure as well as policy & education challenges to unlock the potential of Africa's youthful, tech-friendly populations.

A similarly important presentation on this topic, Tech Horizons: Innovation Trends for Africa's Next Decade, will explore on 10 November the support networks and vehicles that drive tech innovation in Africa - policy & legislation, market access, PPPs.

A healthy part of the future is looking at affordable and accessible healthcare, a Panel: Scaling and Sustaining Healthtech in Africa: Leveraging diverse expertise to maximise impact taking place on Thursday 10 November, will focus on Government policy and the Public & private sector partnerships that will determine Africa's forthcoming vitality.

All access Internet, always on and available
To make it all happen for Africa, there is a radical need for every citizen to have access to digital solutions. On Thursday 10 November, a wealth of insightful discussions will be dedicated to this topic,  Panel: Not All Internet is Created Equal - Unlocking Meaningful Connectivity, and a Keynote Panel: The Rise of The African MVNO. This panel session will look at how MVNOs are evolving away from price differentiation to build value-add services that provide more personalised, customer-centric experiences, and how regulators are striving to build fairer, more modern operator ecosystems to allow for open-access to spectrum allocation, and new market & sector expansion.  
Also, to diarise, is a discussion on how Not all Internet is created equal – unlocking meaningful connectivity. The focus here will be on looking at geographical, gender & financial factors underpinning many of these connectivity trends, and the importance of policy and tech innovation in tackling these barriers, with speakers such as Onica Makwakwa, Head of Africa Region Alliance for Affordable Internet & The World Wide Web Foundation.