Africa must significantly increase the participation of women across its digital infrastructure ecosystem to close the continent’s widening capacity gap and support future economic growth, according to Dr Nadu Denloye, former Group Managing Director of Telnet Nigeria.

Speaking during an International Women’s Day session organised by Africa Hyperscalers, Dr Denloye said Africa’s digital transformation will depend not only on investments in technology such as fibre networks, data centres, and cloud platforms but also on building inclusive talent pipelines capable of sustaining long-term infrastructure development.

Delivering a keynote address themed ‘Give to Gain: Building Africa’s Digital Infrastructure Together’, she emphasised that infrastructure development goes beyond hardware and connectivity systems.

“When we talk about digital infrastructure in Africa today, the focus is often on the hard technology: fibre networks, data centres, cloud platforms, connectivity systems, and increasingly artificial intelligence,” she said. “But infrastructure is never only about technology.

It is also about people, values, institutions, and most importantly, builders.”

According to Dr Denloye, Africa is entering a critical phase marked by rising demand for connectivity, enterprise digital services, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence capabilities, even as infrastructure capacity across the continent remains insufficient for a population approaching 1.4 billion people. She noted that while fibre networks are expanding and new data centres are being deployed across African markets, the scale of investment and human capital required to support digital services, financial systems, and government platforms remains far below future needs.

Closing this gap, she said, will require coordinated development across multiple layers, including connectivity infrastructure, computing capacity, interconnection systems, energy supply, and skilled talent. “But it will also require something equally important: more builders,” she added.

Dr Denloye stressed that increasing women’s participation in telecommunications, engineering, digital infrastructure investment, and technology leadership is essential to achieving that goal. “When I began my career, women in telecommunications and technology leadership were extremely rare. Today we are seeing more women entering engineering, entrepreneurship, and technology leadership. That progress is encouraging, but it is still not enough,” she said.

She argued that gender inclusion should not be viewed solely as a diversity objective but as a strategic requirement for ecosystem growth. “Africa cannot close its digital infrastructure gap if half of its potential talent remains under-represented in the industries responsible for building that infrastructure,” she said, calling for more women to design networks, lead technology companies, invest in infrastructure projects, and shape digital policy frameworks.

Reflecting on her experience as co-founder and later Group Managing Director of Telnet Nigeria, Dr Denloye recalled building a technology-driven company in the mid-1980s when Nigeria’s digital ecosystem was still at an early stage and telecommunications infrastructure was limited and highly centralised. “There was no internet ecosystem as we know it today. What we now call the digital economy was still largely an idea,” she said, noting that early industry pioneers helped lay the institutional foundations that enabled Nigeria’s current digital services sector.

She said the evolution of Africa’s digital economy demonstrates that transformation does not occur by chance but through sustained investments by entrepreneurs, engineers, investors, and policymakers working together over time. Dr Denloye also highlighted mentorship and knowledge-sharing as critical components of ecosystem development, urging industry leaders to intentionally support younger professionals entering the sector. “Those who come first create pathways for those who follow,” she said. “When experienced leaders share knowledge, invest in people, and build institutions that outlast them, the entire ecosystem becomes stronger.”

She added that collaboration among stakeholders across data centres, cloud platforms, connectivity providers, and policymakers will be central to the next phase of Africa’s digital growth. “Africa’s digital future will not be built by technology alone. It will be built by communities of builders working together to strengthen the systems that power our digital economy,” she said.

Dr Denloye commended Africa Hyperscalers for convening industry stakeholders to examine how collaboration and inclusion can accelerate infrastructure development across the continent, expressing optimism that collective action would help shape a more resilient and inclusive digital ecosystem for Africa.