CCT Africa 2025 Agenda
Monday 7 July 2025
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PRE CCT 2025 GOLF EVENT hosted by Angola Cables & Ciena
8:00am: Meeting time for transfer to the Golf club
9:00am: Tee-off time
1.30pm: Lunch on the 18th hole
Location: Montchoisy Golf Club
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All CCT Africa 2025 attendees are invited to participate.
Attendees must confirm participation by emailing racheljones@theintelligentnetwork.net
6:15pm Pre-event Cocktail Reception hosted by CMC Networks
8.00pm Beach BBQ hosted by WIOCC
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Day One: Tuesday 8th July 2025
8.15am Registration and Coffee
8.30am Welcome Remarks
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8.35am | KEYNOTE MINISTERIAL ROUNDTABLE
Ministers of Telecommunications from various African countries have been invited to
participate in the keynote ministerial roundtable.
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Moderator: Tim Passingham, Chairman, CAMBRIDGE MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
Speakers:
Ministers of Telecommunications from various African countries have been invited to
participate in the keynote ministerial roundtable.
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9.45am Coffee Break
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10.00am | KEYNOTE SPOTLIGHT: THE LAST 12 MONTHS AND THE NEXT 12 MONTHS - ACCELERATING THE PACE OF CHANGE IN DRIVING AFRICA’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FORWARD
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- The last 12 months; why is it different and what has changed?
- Growth – where has the growth come from?
- Demand – have the drivers of demand changed? What is causing declining corporate bandwidth revenues?
- Political risks – how are the new political risks impacting on the CCT ecosystem across the continent?
- Economic risks – what impact will the global economic risks have on the development of infrastructure and
connectivity across the continent and the wider ecosystem?
- What impact will increasing cybersecurity risks have, and what needs to be done to manage them?
- Cloud and revenues -lack of progress and speed outside South Africa? How does Africa host its own content; local players vs hyperscalers
- Subsea resiliency and diversity – what has changed since the cable cuts and Red Sea challenges?
The next 12 months
- Leveraging new technologies; the role AI will play and when? Bringing new capabilities to the network
- New cross-border collaboration and partnerships to enhance connectivity
- New investment opportunities: what needs to be put in place to encourage tech companies to invest
- New partnerships to accelerate development: satellite, wireless, terrestrial
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Moderator: Russell Southwood, CEO, BALANCING ACT
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Speakers:
Ian Paterson, GROUP CEO, CSQUARED
Schalk Erasmus, CEO, PARATUS GROUP
Alpheus Mangale, CEO, SEACOM
Mugo Kibati, CEO, TELKOM KENYA
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11.15am Coffee Break
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11.35am | SOLVING THE END-TO-END CONNECTIVITY CHALLENGES: FIBRE NETWORK EXPANSION, CROSS BORDER AND INLAND CONNECTIVITY COLLABORATION – CO-INVESTING, CO-OPERATION AND SHARING INFRASTRUCTURE
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- New terrestrial fibre routes – progress update from the 2024 MoU
- Joining the dots – what needs to happen next? Which countries, which routes, where are the bottlenecks?
- Assessing strategic positions to move traffic North & East; linking Central African countries
- How can we work together to deliver the fibre connectivity needed across Africa? – cross border partnerships
- Fibre sharing, infrastructure sharing, cross-border fibre projects and in-country mergers, inland partnerships
- Putting robust infrastructure in rural areas and the role of LEOs
- Investment needed to progress land partnerships; accessing funding
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Moderator: Lanre Kolade, Chairman, CONNECTED COMPUTE
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Speakers:
Stanley Jegede, Chairman, PHASE 3 TELECOM
El Hadji Maty Sene, Strategy & Planning Director, SONATEL
Chris Wood, CEO, WIOCC
Alex Masu, Network Investments, Africa & Middle East Lead, META
Neo Nwako, Managing Director, ABARICOM
Edward Lawrence, CEO, YAFIBER
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12.50pm Lunch
2.30pm | SUBSEA CONNECTIVITY INSIGHT: DIVERSITY, RESILIENCE AND COLLABORATION – TAKING A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
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- Assessing what changes have taken place since subsea cuts and Red Sea challenges; Has it changed the way
industry and governments view subsea infrastructure; role of governments in protecting critical infrastructure;
what still needs to be done?
-Taking a global perspective; Asia-Africa traffic, Asia-Europe traffic; impact on landlocked countries, impact
around Africa
- What impact are the new subsea cables having on the market; Equiano, 2Africa and scale of capacity
- Resiliency and diversity; route diversity and cable landing diversity – what more is needed and how can it be
financed?
- How do we drive down the cost for land-locked countries to access subsea cables?
- New potential subsea routes; financing, where are the gaps?
- Mobilisation of vessels – can we find solutions to mobilisation challenges by collaborating?
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Moderator: Chris George, Founder, SELF INFRASTRUCTURE
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Speakers:
Norman Albi, CEO, AFR-IX
Yonas Maru, Managing Director, BCS
Justin Gianchand, Network Investment Manager, META
Prenesh Padayachee, Group Chief Digital Officer, SEACOM
Pete Hall, Managing Director, CIENA
3.30pm Coffee Break
4.00pm | REPORTING BACK: 2024 MOU
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Moderator: Tim Passingham, Chairman, CAMBRIDGE MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
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THE PAN AFRICAN NETWORK OF INTERCONNECTED INTERNET EXCHANGES
Speakers:
Angelo Gama, CEO, ANGOLA CABLES
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4.50pm | BUILDING SKILLS AND TALENT TO MEET THE GROWING DEMANDS WITHIN AFRICA – INNOVATION, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: PREPARING AFRICA’S WORKFORCE FOR A DIGITAL FUTURE
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Speakers:
Andile Ngcaba, CEO, CONVERGENCE PARTNERS
Mugo Kibati, CEO, TELKOM KENYA
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5.15pm Cocktail Reception at La Plage hosted by Touchnet Telecommunications
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7.45pm CCT Africa 2025 Dinner
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Day 2: Wednesday 9th July 2025
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7.45am Womens Breakfast
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8.30am Breakfast & Coffee
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9.00am | DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE FINANCING AND INVESTMENT IN AFRICA
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- Current and future investment opportunity outlook; networks, fibre links, building DC capacity, drivers of M & A
- Evaluating digital infrastructure initiatives; view from the DFIs
- Has tech infrastructure slowed down in Africa?
- How can the challenges of an uncertain investment environment be overcome? What will be the impact of
Investment shortfall on the development of infrastructure and connectivity across the continent?
- Overcoming key challenges of doing business in Africa; taxation, regulatory regimes, attracting private sector
investment through incentives; developing win-win partnerships for both parties
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Moderator: Russell Southwood, CEO, BALANCING ACT
Speakers:
Premeshim Naidoo, MD, TMT, ABSA
Ilias Djouai, Vice President, Heavy Industry Telecoms & Technology, AFC
Nicholas Williams, Head, ICT Division, AFDB
Kumbi Gundani, Executive Vice President, Telecommunications, Media & Technology, Corporate & Investment
Banking, STANDARD BANK GROUP
Moritz Thompson, Investment Director - Pan Africa, AIIM
Andile Ngcaba, CEO, CONVERGENCE PARTNERS
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10.15am Coffee Break
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10.45am | DATA CENTRES, INTERCONNECTIVITY AND THE CLOUD: REVIEWING AND REASSESSING DATA CENTRE
AND CONNECTIVITY MODELS ACROSS AFRICA: LOCATION, SCALE, ACCESS AND CUSTOMER DEMAND
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- Location and scale of existing facilities; why have projects stalled and what more is needed? Where is the
customer demand and what does the market need? Why has the data centre market not materialised as
anticipated? How can demand be accelerated? Scale, location and access
- How do we find the solutions to the challenges; access to reliable, stable power; co-power projects and
sustainability, funding, balancing goals of digital growth and sustainability targets
- Is there value in pursuing different strategies rather than replicating those of Europe and the US? What new
opportunities are arising?
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UNLOCKING THE VALUE OF THE CLOUD: RETHINKING ARCHITECTURE FOR CLOUD IN AFRICA AN
DEVELOPING NEW PARTNERSHIPS TO SUPPORT CLOUD-BASED SERVICES
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- Drivers of demand and adoption of digital services and products, enterprise cloud services – lack of enterprise
demand and impact on development of the market and access to global cloud infrastructure; how can demand be
accelerated?
​ - Opportunities in fintech, IoT and security
Development and impact of new public cloud regions; local cloud providers vs hyperscalers
- How will AI be applied, will it bring new capabilities to the market and how far away is it for Africa? Could it
unlock new growth potential for telcos?
- Public vs private clouds, multi-cloud strategies
- Developing partnerships to support cloud migration and upskilling
What solutions can be put in place to to overcome key challenges; local supply chain shortages, power reliability
and access, data residency and localisation challenges, cross border data traffic flows, talent and skills
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Moderator: Chris George, Founder, SELF INFRASTRUCTURE
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Speakers:
Marisa Trisolino, CEO, CMC NETWORKS
Ikechukwu Nnamani, CEO, Nigeria, DIGITAL REALTY
Snehar Shah, CEO, IX AFRICA
Johnson Agogbua, CEO, KASI CLOUD
Amine Kandil, CEO, N+ONE
Charly Bahous, CEO, TOUCHNET TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Anthony Voscarides, CEO, WINGU
Chris Wood, CEO, WIOCC
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12.30pm Lunch
1.50pm | LOCAL ACCESS AND LAST MILE SOLUTIONS: SATELLITE, WIRELESS AND FIBRE – REACHING
UNDERSERVED AND UNSERVED MARKETS
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- Evaluating alternative business models to deliver local access solutions
- Addressing the challenges of putting robust infrastructure in place in rural areas; LEO satellite solutions to reach
rural and low-income segments of the population
- LEO solutions to enable new use cases
- Challenges: depth of connectivity, speed, and pricing – can these be overcome?
- Rural TowerCo partnerships and shared rural networks
- Leveraging alternative technologies to enhance connectivity
- Developing integrated solutions with satellite, 5G wireless, fibre to deliver low-cost solutions with high quality
connectivity
- What does a complementary investment strategy look like for connectivity infrastructure?
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Moderator: Tim Passingham, CEO, CAMBRIDGE MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
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Speakers:
Brian Munyao Longwe, CEO, CONVERGED TECHNOLOGY NETWORK
Lorentz Chidue Nwachuku, TMT Lead Africa, Infrastructure & Natural Resources, Africa, IFC
Jacques du Toit, CEO, VOX TELECOM
Mark Anderson, Head of Business Operations, EMEA, PROJECT KUIPER, AWS
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3pm Coffee Break
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3.20pm | DRIVING ACCESS TO CONTENT ACROSS THE CONTINENT: MEDIA, ENTERTAINMENT AND GAMING –
UNDERSTANDING CONNECTIVITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIREMENTS AND CHALLENGES
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Moderator: Russell Southwood, CEO, BALANCING ACT
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Speakers:
Ayesha Chowdhury, Senior Manager, Global Digital Business & Senior Leadership Board Advisor,
BBC WORLD SERVICE
Désiré Kousawo, President, SAGES AFRICA (tbc)
Myke (Mugo) Mwai, Head of Communication and Content Syndication, STARTIMES KENYA
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4.20pm End of CCT AFRICA 2025 Executive Summit
7.00pm Closing CCT Africa 2025 Reception & Dinner
