Domain Summit Africa 2026

This premier domain industry event is recognized as the largest B2B domain conference on the African continent, bringing together domain service providers, registrars, investors, IT entrepreneurs,
and digital industry leaders from across Africa and beyond. The summit features a comprehensive program including keynotes, expert panels, workshops, and an exhibition, with roughly 90% of speakers hailing from the African region. It focuses on fostering real business opportunities and partnerships within the domain ecosystem.

Villa Rosa Kempinski (Nairobi, Kenya, February 23–24)

The event kicks off with a pre-event day on February 22 featuring an exclusive KeNIC office tour and a networking drinks reception at the venue. Attendees benefit from continuous networking opportunities over meals and informal gatherings, with many choosing to stay at the official venue, Villa Rosa Kempinski, which offers special rates. The Domain Summit Africa 2026  is a 100% business-focused  event aimed at connecting top African domain registrars and ccTLD operators with global digital leaders to grow business networks across the continent’s digital infrastructure landscape.

“The long game for Domain Summit Africa is to run it consistently, year after year for 10 years, and to do this with a dedicated African team of Domain Summit.”

Why Nairobi, Why Now: Helmuts Meskonis on Building Domain Summit Africa

Freename: Helmuts, great seeing you back on the pages of The Domain Standard. After the success of Domain Summit London and Domain Summit Asia, you’re now bringing the event to Africa, and specifically to Nairobi. What drew you to Kenya, and why do you think now is the right time to host a summit here?

Helmuts Meskonis: This seems to be a collection of fortunate life events :) 

We became friends with the new KeNIC team after Andrew Lewela Mwanyota, the CEO of KeNIC, came to Domain Summit London in 2023. After that we kept in touch. A lot of this is also down to the super friendly nature of KeNIC’s CMO, Gitau Muraguri. For me, Kenya was never just “a dot on the map”. It felt like an answer to a question I’ve had for years: How do we take Domain Summit global, with partners we can actually trust? Nairobi seems to be that answer. Also, Kenya has a huge 57.5 million people and is one of Africa’s biggest and most dynamic economies. In early 2025 there were about 27+ million internet users in the country, with internet penetration almost close to 50%.

It is a regional hub, and many registered attendees already appreciate it :) Flights from Europe, the Middle East and across Africa connect through Nairobi every day. That matters a lot when you run an international B2B event. I have heard that Kenya itself has more mobile SIM cards than people and mobile money is a daily habit, not a “future trend”.

This makes is a very very unique and interesting market. KeNIC has grown .KE from fewer than 1,000 registrations in 2002 into a serious ccTLD player. And even more - the energy of Andrew and Gitau feels familiar to me. It is the same “let’s build something real together” spirit we have in Europe, but with even stronger family traditions in the background. Why now? Because African domain markets are moving from “potential” into “execution”. And because there is
a gap: there are effectively no dedicated B2B domain-industry events for the continent. Of course, this wouldn’t be possible if today 2 major forces Site.Pro and Freename didn’t financially support the upcoming Summit which helped me covering all the main hotel costs (that are very significant, of course). The main idea of Domain Summit Africa is to help unite that African domain name ecosystem, allow foreign businesses talking and doing business in Africa and create a proper annual meeting point here in Nairobi.

Freename: I noticed reading the program of the conference that for Domain Summit Africa you’re planning for around 90% of the speakers to come from the continent itself. That’s a strong statement. What’s behind that decision, and how do you think it will shape the kind of conversations and partnerships we’ll see in Nairobi?

 Helmuts Meskonis: Yes, I am planning that around 90% of the speakers come from Africa. And, yes, maybe this is a brave plan and difficult to realize it. I will do my best to achieve this! Now with a new Global Partner like Team Internet on board, this number may shift a bit. Major sponsors usually get stage time. That is part of the game for all the events organizers and a common courtesy for good business. Still the principle stays the same: this event should sound like Africa, not like a rerun of the same global speaker list. At many “local” events I attend, quite often I see the same well-known international names on stage. They are great and super professional people, no doubt for that, though sometimes you leave without really understanding the local market.

You hear polished case studies. I really want stories from registrars in Lagos, Nairobi or Kigali, where experience is shared how they actually fight for every customer and what are the lessons learnt. Africa is the world’s second-largest continent. It has 54 countries and a very young population. And, by the way, this is the only continent in the world with a growing population. Yet in our industry, many companies still treat it as “one region” on a slide. So the 90% local-speaker goal is also a mirror we hold up to the global players: Do you really have strong, empowered representatives in Africa? Do they have a real African voice and regional expert, or are they just “someone on the ground”? If we do this right, the conversations in Nairobi will be very practical: real pricing tactics, registry–registrar agreements, reseller networks, local marketing, mobile- first onboarding. Less theory. More business. More deals. This is the plan :)

Freename: You’ve always emphasized that the Summit isn’t just another conference. It’s about building real connections. What kinds of opportunities will attendees have this time to actually network, collaborate, or even make deals on the spot?

 Helmuts Meskonis:  I always design Domain Summit as a  place where policy is in the background. Deals, partnerships and growth should be in the front plan. And, Nairobi will follow the same logic. We are working to bring together African registries, registrars, marketplaces, hosting companies, infrastructure providers and investors into one building. Then we give them time and space to talk. Practically, that means that we will have an exhibition area where African ccTLD registries can sit down with existing and potential registrars. Of course, there will be lots of break time and networking space, not just back-to-back panels. And yes, we plan to have a super cool KeNic office tour for pre-selected attendees. We will have roundtables and small sessions where people can deep-dive into topics like pricing, reseller models or payments, and of course, the industry common side events and dinners with more relaxed atmosphere, where real trust is built.

Just look at the African ccTLD numbers and the demographics. The growth potential is huge. The continent’s internet economy alone is expected to hit around $180 billion by 2025.  The need is here: registries have growth targets that can be reached mostly with their registrar partners, new local resellers and service providers want to meet global infrastructure players, and for all this a cross-border event like Domain Summit seems to be an answer.
My view is simple: businesses should leave Nairobi with new contracts to sign, not just photos for LinkedIn.

 Freename: Africa’s digital and domain landscape is incredibly diverse from fast-growing markets like Nigeria and Kenya to emerging ones that are just getting started. How did you approach building an agenda that speaks to that diversity while keeping a global perspective?

 Helmuts Meskonis: The main agenda is getting many major African ccTLDs to Nairobi as exhibitors, and the plan is coming together nicely. To get this achieved we are offering 10
complimentary exhibiting tables to selected African ccTLDs. The only gentleman’s request is: invite your registrars and partners to meet you in Nairobi, face to face. And, KeNic are individually inviting all their ccTLD colleagues to the Domain Summit Africa. This helps us
balance the agenda: East, West, North, Southern Africa all having a voice, plus a few carefully selected global players to bring in external experience where it actually helps.

 Freename: And finally, looking beyond February 2026. What’s your long game for Domain Summit Africa? Do you see it becoming a recurring event, or perhaps the start of a larger African network within the global domain industry?

  Helmuts Meskonis: [...]
to continue reading the full interview download the Third Issue of The Domain Standard for free. 

About the Author: Helmuts Meskonis founder of Domain Summit and

HostMaria. Owner of DNForum. com (est 2001), AcornDomains.co.uk (est 2004), ConsultDomain.de (est 2002) and a number of more domain name forums - sending out 38k+ newsletters every Tuesday to our users (domain investors).