What are your thoughts?

International Telecoms Week x Datacloud Africa 2026 Conference Podcast Edition

Director of ICT, Magalie Anderson - African Union Commission

Africa’s digital infrastructure is moving fast and the hype is loud, but the real question is who builds it, who pays for it, and who sets the rules that protect people while still attracting investment. We’re joined by Magali Anderson, Director of ICT at the African Union Commission, for a grounded conversation on what continental digital transformation looks like when you’re responsible for cybersecurity governance, data governance, and the policy frameworks that member states can actually use.

We get into why public-private partnerships are necessary and also risky when they’re rushed. Magali explains why governments and non-government bodies often struggle to match the speed of the ICT sector, and why that’s exactly why deeper engagement with industry matters. From data sovereignty to trust, we talk about the practical guardrails that help partnerships deliver real value and not just headlines.

Financing is a major focus: yes, international capital is interested, but domestic financing and cross-border African investment could be the game changer. We also unpack the promise of AfCFTA and the vision of Africa as one connected digital market, along with the real-world blockers like implementation, regulation, payments, and logistics. Then we go straight into the data center rush, why energy distribution and power policy can’t be ignored, and why “context-specific” approaches including alternative compute models may matter more than copying traditional playbooks.

If you care about digital infrastructure investment in Africa, data centers, cloud policy, cybersecurity, skills, and what measurable success should look like by next year, this conversation will sharpen your thinking.

Subscribe for more Tech Talk Africa, share this with someone building in the space, and leave a review telling us what you want regulated first.

Credits
Host:

• Stella Gichuhi

Producer:

• James Njoroge

Executive Producers:

• Harry Hare
• Agutu Dan

What are your thoughts?

International Telecoms Week x Datacloud Africa 2026 Conference Podcast Edition

Director of Partnerships, Growth & Commercial, Thomas Kaberi - Qhala

AI talk gets loud fast, but the truth is quieter and heavier: cables, power, fiber, cooling, racks, and data centers decide what’s possible long before a chatbot ever answers a question. From the floor of ITW Africa 2026, we sit with Thomas Kaberi, Director of Growth and Partnerships at Nkala, to unpack the idea of “unboxing Africa’s digital future” and why infrastructure is not a side quest, it is the foundation.

We get into what Nkala actually is, a research-driven team that also builds, ships, and partners as a “think and do tank.” Thomas shares his own path from early programming to commercial strategy and back into deep tech, plus what he’s learning at a hardware-heavy conference where people are obsessed with latency, fiber routes, policy, and the real timelines of building data centers. If you care about AI infrastructure in Africa, this conversation makes the stack concrete and actionable.

Then we zoom out: AI is not one thing, it’s infrastructure, data quality, talent, financing, and finally the products the public sees. We challenge the default “just build more” mindset with a simple principle: not all engineering problems need an engineering solution, sometimes software efficiency and smarter design change the economics. We also tackle a bigger question for Africa’s digital economy: how does a continent that is 19% of the global population move from 2.5% of global GDP toward truly “pulling its weight” by 2050 through higher productivity across sectors like agriculture, health, education, and finance.

If you want clear thinking on digital infrastructure, AI strategy, partnerships, and what it will take to build at scale, listen now. Subscribe, share this with a builder in your network, and leave a review so more people find the conversation.

Support the show

Credits
Host:

• Stella Gichuhi

Producer:

• James Njoroge

Executive Producers:

• Harry Hare
• Agutu Dan

What are your thoughts?

International Telecoms Week x Datacloud Africa 2026 Conference Podcast Edition

Co-Founder & CCO Mea Thompson - unconnected .org

“Connected” can be a lie we tell ourselves with a coverage map. A school can sit inside a service area and still be offline where it counts, with no devices, limited digital literacy, or internet that’s too expensive or unreliable to support learning. We sit down with Mia Thompson, CCO and co-founder of unconnected.org, to get specific about what meaningful connectivity really means and why the language we use matters if we want to bridge the digital divide for good.

We go deeper than infrastructure talk and into the incentives that shape outcomes. Mia makes a sharp point: the digital divide is often not a technology issue at all, it’s a return on investment problem. Traditional telecom investment favors dense cities because the numbers work, while rural communities and schools get left behind. So we ask the uncomfortable question: whose responsibility is it to fix this, and what happens when no one owns the outcome?

Mia walks us through the “impact marketplace” approach unconnected.org uses to make rural connectivity viable. By negotiating better global pricing on satellite, hardware, and software, they pass savings to local implementation partners so those partners can build and own networks sustainably. We also unpack a less-discussed blocker: fragmented funding. When incentives and subsidies are hard to track, impact gets hard to prove, so scaling stalls.

If you care about meaningful internet access, rural connectivity, and practical ways to connect schools and clinics without turning it into charity, this conversation will give you a clearer model and sharper questions.

Subscribe, share this with someone working in telecom or policy, and leave a review with your take: who should own meaningful connectivity where you live?

Support the show

Credits
Host:

• Stella Gichuhi

Producer:

• James Njoroge

Executive Producers:

• Harry Hare
• Agutu Dan