The Mother City is gearing up to again host AfricaCom, claimed to be Africa's largest telecoms and technology conference and exhibition.

Now in its 19th year, organisers promise a "bigger, bolder event for the entire digital ecosystem".

Taking place between 14 and 18 November at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, the focus of AfricaCom 2016 is the economic development and social empowerment of Africa through digital connectivity.

Event organisers expect more than 10 000 attendees, who will hear over 350 speakers share insights and take part in discussions centring around Africa's most pressing challenges and trends.

The event also views itself as a business and technology incubator for the architects of Africa's digital future – and will have over 375 exhibitors on display.

Africa is often referred to as the "mobile-first continent". It has developed in leaps and bounds in the areas of mobile money, innovative apps, m-health initiatives and local digital entertainment – grabbing the attention of the world's greatest tech leaders, including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. The African telco sector alone is projected to be worth around $65 billion by 2018.

AfricaCom is looking to elevate Africa's digital innovation through showcasing successes and growth, debating solutions and best practice, and enabling a more cohesive ecosystem for collaboration between private and public entities.

The event has this year been extended from the usual two-day model, to a week-long schedule of informative sessions, immersive satellite events and networking opportunities.

This year's agenda offers different streams, from embracing the Internet of things (IOT) and smart cities in an African context, to the potential of monetising data through analytics and customer insights. The event will also serve to shine a light on greater financial inclusion through mobile innovations and digital transformation and agile IT for enterprises.

The development of engaging digital entertainment content in an African context, from television to music, gaming and apps, will also be discussed through case studies and keynote panels.

AfricaCom 2016 also sees a software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualisation (NFV) proof of concept stream focusing on key solutions for African connectivity service providers, the essential phases of migration to NFV, as well as leveraging the synergies of SDN and NFV.

Key speakers this year include:

* Bruno Mettling, CEO of Orange in the Middle East and Africa

* Dr Abdoulkarim Soumaila, secretary general of the African Telecommunication Union

* Bisila Bokoko, of the UN's EMPRETEC programme

* Jean-Philippe-Gillet, VP of Intelsat, EMEA

* Thione Niang,-co-founder of Akon Lighting Africa

* Brian Armstrong, group CCO at Telkom

* Thibaud Rerolle, CTO of Safaricom

ITWeb and ITWebAfrica are media partners for AfricaCom 2016.