Tech Talk Africa

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.
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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

What are your thoughts?
International Telecoms Week x Datacloud Africa 2026 Conference Podcast Edition

Senior Vice President of Connectivity, Cloud & Cyber Security, Marco Gagiano - Cassava Technologies

A single cable break shouldn’t be able to knock whole regions offline, yet Africa’s digital infrastructure still has chokepoints that turn routine failures into major outages. From the show floor at ITW 2026, we sit down with Marco Cargiano of Cassava Technologies to get specific about what “resilient connectivity” actually means when AI infrastructure, cloud services, and enterprise demand are accelerating across the continent.

We talk through how Cassava approaches redundancy across submarine capacity and terrestrial fiber, why a high-capacity mesh network matters, and how traffic should reroute instantly when a link fails. Marco explains why AI changes the game for network planning because it’s not just more traffic, it’s different traffic: far more upload-heavy flows that can fill capacity faster than legacy assumptions. If you care about Africa connectivity, network engineering, and the practical realities of scaling data centers and AI factories, this conversation is packed with real-world constraints and design choices.

Then we tackle a topic that gets oversimplified: data sovereignty. We explore the difference between geographic sovereignty (processing and storing data inside a country) and “sovereignty without geography,” where encryption and modern network tech can let customers use cross-border compute without data being stored elsewhere. We also break down cross-border failover for landlocked countries, the danger of “paper redundancy,” and where LEO satellite fits as a complementary option for rural coverage and emergency gaps rather than a true fiber replacement.

If you found this useful, subscribe for more conversations on Africa’s digital infrastructure, share the episode with someone building networks or policy, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.
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

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

Head of Data Centre, MEA region, Mourad Younes - Schneider Electric
AI is changing data center design faster than most teams can rewrite their playbooks, and the pressure shows up everywhere: power demand, heat rejection, talent, timelines, and the gap between big visions and real execution. From ITW 2026, we sit down with Mourad Younes, Head of Data Center for Middle East and Africa at Schneider Electric, to get clear on what actually sits behind the buzzwords and what “AI-ready” means when you are accountable for real infrastructure.

We talk about Schneider Electric’s role as a technology vendor and why data centers still come down to three fundamentals: power, building, and IT. Mourad explains the idea of delivering solutions “from the grid to the chips and from the chips to the chillers,” plus the software layer that gives operators visibility across critical assets. Then we shift to what market acceleration does to people. We share how strong team structure, empowered regional leaders, and a learning culture reduce burnout in a demanding engineering environment.

On the tech side, we get into high-density AI workloads, the move toward liquid cooling, and why the priority right now is getting the design and reference architecture right, not chasing cost debates in isolation. We also dig into power efficiency and resilience through better monitoring, digital twin visibility, and smarter decisions based on actual consumption. Finally, we zoom out to Africa’s huge potential, the strength of local engineering skill sets, and the pragmatic question that decides everything: what are the real needs, and how do we align the ecosystem to deliver?

If you care about data center infrastructure, AI data centers, liquid cooling, power consumption, or scaling digital infrastructure in Africa, hit play, then subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review. What part of the ecosystem do you think needs to mature first?
Support the show
Credits
Host: 
Stella Gichuhi
Producer: 
James Njoroge
Executive Producers:
Harry Hare
Agutu Dan