Major Cybersecurity and AI Events in Africa in 2026: An Executive Calendar

Africa's cyber and AI calendar has become busier. For a CISO, technology executive, founder or sponsor, the right question is no longer simply “which event should I attend?”, but “which event serves which objective?”: intelligence gathering, recruitment, policy, sales, partnerships, investment, certification or executive access.

This guide presents a selection of 2026 events confirmed on their official websites. It is deliberately not exhaustive: the aim is to build a useful calendar for someone who must allocate time and budget.

At a glance
April: innovation/tech in Marrakech. May: cyber community in Lagos. November: cyber defence in Nairobi, then tech/AI in Cape Town. December: Black Hat Europe for global cyber research, then Dakar with SIPEN and ECW.

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2026 calendar — executive overview

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1. GITEX Africa — Marrakech, 7–9 April 2026

GITEX Africa remains one of the continent's major technology gatherings. The 2026 edition notably highlights an Africa AI Governance Forum, a Cyber – Resilient Architecture track, an Executive Summit and a strong startup/investor presence.

Prioritise it if your objective is

• broad continental visibility;
• innovation and technology partnerships;
• AI, cloud, infrastructure and the digital economy;
• investors and scale-ups;
• government/industry relations.

Ideal profile

CEOs, CTOs, investors, founders, innovation leaders, operators and major technology suppliers.

Why it differs from a pure cyber event: GITEX is much broader than cybersecurity. That is an advantage for ecosystem strategies, less so for a strictly CISO-to-CISO conversation.

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2. Africa CyberFest — Lagos, 2 May 2026

Africa CyberFest 2026 presents itself as an evolution from a community format towards engineering, workshops, research, hackathons and practical cybersecurity.

The organiser historically claims more than 1,500 in-person participants, over 80 speakers and more than one million digital impressions per edition. These are organiser claims: they should be read as such, not as independent measurements.

Prioritise it if your objective is

• cyber talent;
• technical community;
• engineering and practical work;
• visibility among young professionals;
• recruitment and employer branding.

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3. Africa Cyber Defense Forum — Nairobi, 2–6 November 2026

ACDF 2026 is structured around workshops, a main forum, a gala and related activities. The 2026 theme addresses African cyber sovereignty in a fragmented technology world.

The programme combines technical aspects, public policy and executive discussions: SOC, DFIR, CTI, AI applied to defence, sovereignty and resilience.

Prioritise it if your objective is

• policy and cyber defence;
• CISOs / government / regulators;
• cyber sovereignty;
• practical workshops;
• the East African market.

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4. Africa Tech Festival — Cape Town, 17–19 November 2026

Africa Tech Festival takes place at the CTICC and brings together telecoms, digital infrastructure, the AI Summit, businesses, governments and partnerships.

The format is particularly relevant for groups that want to discuss connectivity + cloud + AI + infrastructure + digital transformation in one trip.

Prioritise it if your objective is

• telecoms and digital infrastructure;
• AI at scale;
• enterprise customers and governments;
• industrial partnerships;
• Southern Africa.

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5. Black Hat Europe — London, 7–10 December 2026

Black Hat Europe is not an African event, but it matters in the calendar of African cybersecurity leaders, major vendors and research teams. The 2026 edition takes place in London with Trainings, Briefings, the AI Security Summit, Financial Threat Summit, Arsenal and Business Hall.

Prioritise it if your objective is

• advanced security research;
• offensive security;
• threat intelligence;
• open-source tools;
• international technical training;
• vendor/researcher meetings.

Why include it here?

Because a sponsor or CISO building an African December calendar must account for major international travel by the same audience.

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6. Executive Cybersecurity Week — Dakar, 14–20 December 2026

ECW Dakar is built on a different model: less “mass exhibition”, more “executive week + skills development + business access”.

The week combines:

• 14–18 December: PECB Certified ISO/IEC 27001 Lead Implementer Executive Experience;
• 17 December: ECW Closing Dinner;
• 19 December: ECW Executive Forum;
• 19 December: Executive Forum Dinner;
• 20 December: Private Executive Experiences, invitation-only.

The Forum is free, but in-person access is curated. ECW Live extends digital participation. Partners have a Partner Hub designed to identify relevant profiles, build shortlists and request meetings before Dakar.

Prioritise it if your objective is

• C-level cyber/AI access;
• qualified business conversations;
• ISO/IEC 27001 certification;
• the Francophone African / West African market;
• pipeline-focused sponsorship rather than visibility alone;
• relationships with institutions, executives and partners.

Explore ECW Dakar 2026

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7. SIPEN — Dakar, 17–18 December 2026

SIPEN 2026, organised by OPTIC Senegal at the King Fahd Palace, focuses on cybersecurity, digital trust, sovereignty and growth in Africa. The organiser announces more than 5,000 participants and a hybrid format combining panels, workshops, masterclasses and an exhibition.

Prioritise it if your objective is

• Senegal's digital economy;
• local institutions and companies;
• exhibition;
• digital transformation;
• broad networking in Dakar.

A particularly interesting Dakar window

The overlap between the end of ECW's week and SIPEN creates an unusual concentration of digital decision-makers in Dakar. ECW positions its Executive Forum on 19 December, the day after SIPEN, with a more curated format focused on executive conversations.

For an international executive or sponsor, this proximity can make a Dakar trip particularly efficient — provided the objectives of each event are planned separately.

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How should you choose an event?

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For sponsors: do not measure impressions alone

A good event investment is not measured solely by the number of people who saw a logo.

Before sponsoring, ask:

1. Who will actually be able to discover your company?
2. Can you identify the profiles you want to meet before the event?
3. Does the organiser facilitate conversations or just visibility?
4. Do participants match your target market?
5. What performance data will you receive after the event?

This is precisely the approach of the ECW Partner Hub: moving from visibility to conversation, then from conversation to opportunity.

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Sources

• GITEX Africa 2026: https://gitexafrica.com/fr/home
• Africa CyberFest 2026: https://africacyberfest.com/
• Africa Cyber Defense Forum 2026: https://africacyberdefenseforum.com/events/2026-2/acdf/
• Africa Tech Festival 2026: https://africatechfestival.com/faqs/
• Black Hat Europe 2026: https://blackhat.com/europe/
• SIPEN Dakar 2026: https://www.sipen-dakar.com/