Africa's entry into the fourth industrial revolution will be scrutinised at this year's AfricaCom 20/20 event scheduled for 13 November 2018 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

In a pre-event statement, organisers have confirmed several items on the agenda including a keynote presentation by Lanre Kolade, MD of Vodacom Nigeria, as well as a panel discussion The Digital Gold Mine – Overcoming Regional Obstacles, focused on issues such as production, management and governance, tech expertise and economic difficulties.

According to the event's organisers experts already agree that many of these socio-economic challenges will be met by Africa leapfrogging legacy systems.

"Yet, while this may be the case, the principle of laying solid foundations remains a pre-requisite for long-term success," reads the statement.

Patrick Kabre, MD, Alink Telecom, will offer his perspective on the leapfrogging opportunity, and Dimitris Maniatis, Head of Secure-D, Upstream, will share his thoughts on the darker side of the web.

Grant Byron, Chief Technology Officer at MST will present a keynote on: How mobility is changing the way we deliver social impact services.

Organisers have confirmed that the event will also focus on the 'findustrial revolution' and there is a panel discussion scheduled to tackle questions including 'how can Blockchain optimise telecom operator's products and services in the African Market?' and 'how effective is network virtualisation in optimising African Telco's with their ROI?'

Rakesh Kukreja, Group MD, IsatAfrica, will present a keynote that seeks to clarify how virtualising network functions via Telco cloud infrastructure across all network and service platforms will enable digital democracy.

Siphesande Sonti, Head of Network: Energy Department, Mycput, will offer perspective on the 'future-tech Africa', while Lesley Colmer, Director at Greencom, is schedule to discuss where agri-tech is headed.

Other trends on the agenda include gaming and eSport.

"With more than 2.5 billion gamers in the world and growing, the opportunities are endless, especially as more and more are switching to playing games on their mobiles," the organisers state.