CAPE TOWN, South Africa, August 21, 2026/APO Group/ –The organisers of the DRC Critical Minerals & Industrialisation Forum (DCMI), co‑located with the DRC‑Africa Battery Metals Forum, have announced the first dates of its exclusive, upcoming, high-impact digital webinar series.

While the event was meant to take place in Kinshasa from 7 to 8 October, the event organisers, VUKA Group, postponed the in-person Forum to 2027 to align directly with the DRC Government’s updated national policy frameworks and to allow the revised roadmaps for the $58 billion Master Plan for Industrialisation (Plan Directeur d’Industrialisation, PDI) to mature.

 




  

The digital webinar series will kick off on 23 September and run until 2027, providing convenient access to the insights, market intelligence and strategic discussions planned for the live event.

Expert speakers and moderators confirmed to participate in these webinars include:
– Edmond Cibamba Diata, Lawyer, Elite Law Firm, DRC 
– Shantha Bloemen, CEO, Mobility for Africa, Zimbabwe
– Bryan Mav, Sales Team Manager & Brand Manager, Moderne Construction, DRC
– Ghislain Kabumba Baderha, Doctoral Researcher, UOB, DRC
– Jem Kishabaga, Managing Director, Renewable Energy, DRC
– Prof. Hercule Kalele Mulonda, Technical Director, CCB and Representative of CAEB, DRC
– Marc Nyunzi Mutambala, Capital Markets Manager, FSD Africa, Kenya

The first four editions of the digital webinar series will focus on the following:

Webinar 1: 23 September 2026, 10h30–12h00

UNLOCKING THE DRC’S INDUSTRIAL POTENTIAL:  The A-to-Z masterclass strategy

The DRC masterclass examines how the nation can harness its mineral wealth for sustainable growth and industrialization. Experts will discuss policies to move beyond raw exports, enforce security and strengthen ESG standards. Priorities include local beneficiation, human capital development and tailored financing to balance global markets. By defining collaborative actions and investment pathways, the session seeks to accelerate value addition, enhance competitiveness and position the DRC as a responsible global leader in the minerals value chain.

Webinar 2: 21 October 2026, 10h30–12h00

FOCUS ON INFRASTRUCTURE & INDUSTRIALISATION DEVELOPMENT

The panel on infrastructure and industrialisation highlights the DRC’s need to move beyond raw material extraction by focusing on local transformation. Building resilient industries will drive job creation and strengthen the economy. Experts will examine how transport, energy and logistics projects accelerate industrialisation, with case studies such as ports, railways and cross‑border initiatives. By prioritising strategic development and leveraging mineral revenues, the DRC can unlock sustainable growth and position itself as a competitive hub within the African Continental Free Trade Area.

Webinar 3: 11 November 2026, 10h30–12h00

NEW TECHNOLOGIES DRIVING THE GLOBAL ENERGY TRANSITION

This session explores how technology and ESG‑aligned investment can transform the DRC’s critical minerals sector. With global demand for lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper rising, responsible sourcing and compliance are essential to build investor confidence. Discussions will focus on local processing, advanced metallurgical methods, renewable energy and automation to accelerate industrialisation. By shifting from raw exports to in‑country beneficiation, the DRC can strengthen sustainability, unlock long‑term value and position itself as a competitive player in the global energy transition.

Webinar 4: 25 November 2026, 10h30–12h00

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS: BUILDING A STRONGER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE CRITICAL MINERALS VALUE CHAIN

This discussion explores how strategic partnerships can strengthen the DRC’s critical minerals value chain. By fostering collaboration between governments, regional integration systems and investors, the focus is on building resilience and supporting sustainable growth. Key themes include industrialisation through global partnerships, prioritising sectors for development and aligning with international partners. With effective models of cooperation, the DRC can unlock socio‑economic benefits, enhance competitiveness and establish a stronger foundation for a sustainable and inclusive minerals sector.

DRC’s transition
DCMI unites government, industry and investors to accelerate the country’s transition from raw‑material extraction to high‑value manufacturing, underscoring the nation’s opportunity to convert mineral wealth into infrastructure, jobs and sustainable economic growth.

The DRC’s Ministries of Mines and of Industry and Federation of Enterprises of Congo (FEC) are official partners of the event.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, September 7, 2026/APO Group/ –CEM Africa 2026 concluded at the Century City Conference Centre following three days of strong engagement across Africa’s customer experience community.

 




  

 

The 14th edition welcomed 970 attendees from more than 260 companies across 20 countries, bringing together senior CX, customer service, marketing, digital, technology and transformation leaders alongside solution providers and industry partners.

The event achieved a Net Promoter Score of 69, reflecting a strong response from delegates and reinforcing the relevance of the CEM Africa platform.

Across the programme, delegates had access to 43 workshop and breakout sessions and 10 main stage content sessions, with feedback consistently highlighting the quality, relevance and practical value of the content.

Discussions tackled the issues shaping CX today, including AI adoption, trust, customer intelligence, employee experience, digital transformation, customer journeys and the growing pressure to demonstrate measurable business value.

Standout voices and timely conversations

Under the theme “Trust, Technology and the Human Future of CX in Africa”, the programme combined global perspective with distinctly African CX challenges and opportunities.

Business journalist and best-selling author Bruce Whitfield delivered “The Trust Advantage”, exploring the role of trust in reducing friction and creating stronger business outcomes.

Zahirah Variawa, Founder of The Fourth Thread, opened Day Two with “The Moments People Remember: Why the Experiences We Create Matter More Than We Think”, placing human connection firmly at the centre of customer experience.

Martin Urrutia, Head of Global Retail Experience at The LEGO Group, delivered “Experience Is the Brand”, examining how organisations can design experiences that differentiate, scale and build loyalty.

From the public sector, Rashid Toefy, Deputy Director-General at the Western Cape Government, presented “Citizen Experience by Design: Building Trust Through Better Public Services”, highlighting the importance of experience design in strengthening trust between institutions and the people they serve.

Together, these sessions reinforced one of the strongest messages to emerge from CEM Africa 2026: technology is reshaping customer engagement, but trust, relevance and human connection remain fundamental to great experience.

Engagement across every part of the event

CEM Africa 2026 was designed to encourage participation beyond the main stage.

Delegates moved throughout the venue between keynote sessions, 43 workshops and breakouts, panel discussions, solution demonstrations, the exhibition and direct conversations with technology providers and peers.

Day Zero set the tone with The Social Club: Play. Taste. Connect, live podcast discussions and opening drinks, creating an informal environment for the community to connect before the main conference programme began.

Across Days One and Two, engagement continued through the exhibition, matchmaking and smaller-format sessions, while Matchmaking and Happy Hour and the CEM Engage Party created further opportunities for delegates, speakers and partners to build relationships outside the formal programme.

The event closed with WiN CX Africa, bringing female leaders together around leadership, safety, trust and inclusion in customer and employee experience.

Strong response from partners

Sponsors and exhibitors also reported a highly positive response, with partners contributing actively to both the content programme and the wider event experience.

NiCE, Lead Sponsor of CEM Africa 2026, played a prominent but integrated role throughout the summit, bringing practical perspectives on AI-powered customer experience, enterprise AI agents and the evolving relationship between human and AI-enabled service.

The wider partner community contributed expertise across Voice of Customer, customer intelligence, automation, conversational engagement, journey orchestration, contact centres and CX measurement, helping ensure that technology conversations remained grounded in real operational and commercial challenges.

The numbers behind CEM Africa 2026

The post-event results underline both the scale of the community and the depth of engagement across the programme:

970 total attendance

260+ companies represented

20 countries represented

43 workshop and breakout sessions

10 main stage content sessions

+69 Event NPS

For CEM Africa, the NPS of 69 is particularly significant. It is not simply a measure of satisfaction, but an indication that delegates found genuine value in the content, connections and overall event experience.

“The response to CEM Africa 2026 has been incredibly encouraging. What stood out was the level of engagement across every part of the event, from the main stage and workshops to the exhibition, matchmaking and networking functions. An NPS of 69 reinforces that the community is finding real value in these conversations and in the connections CEM Africa creates.”

Terry Southam, Group Director retail – VUKA Group

Momentum builds towards CEM Johannesburg Edition

With the Cape Town flagship complete, attention now turns to the CEM Johannesburg Edition, taking place on 10–11 November 2026 at NH Hotel in Sandton.

The event expands to a full two-day format in 2026, bringing together senior CX decision-makers, practitioners and solution providers around practical workshops, peer-led insight, solution discovery and purposeful business networking.

The strong response in Cape Town is already carrying forward into Johannesburg, with growing interest from delegates, speakers and commercial partners.

Download the CEM Johannesburg Edition Sponsorship Brochure

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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, August 26, 2026/APO Group/ –Generative AI can be a powerful business knowledge service, saving considerable time for employees. Yet, concerns grow around AI accuracy and how it handles sensitive information. According to a 2025 KPMG survey (https://apo-opa.co/3UgIjBb), only 46% of company workers trust AI, and that proportion is shrinking, especially since 56% say they are making more mistakes because of AI. 



 

Despite such growing doubts, the technology can be an exceptional information source and time-saver, especially for sensitive, technical, and contextual queries. A South African payroll platform developed these advantages, using AI to provide detailed and contextual information for customer employees and payroll teams.

 

Payroll staff spend considerable amounts of time answering routine questions, such as why someone’s net pay decreased, what amount of taxes they paid, or how much overtime they earned last month. Said staff also have queries around formulas and components, regulations, payroll statuses in different business units, and creating new payroll structures.

 

“Payroll staff juggle a lot of queries,” says Warren van Wyk, Director at Deel Local Payroll, home of the PaySpace payroll platform. “Can generative AI handle those queries while adding real context? We believe it can, but that’s not enough. There has to be trust, accuracy, and oversight. How do we create those things? That was the challenge we set for ourselves.”

 

Building an AI assistant worthy of payroll

 

Generative AI excels at conversing in natural language, changing how we communicate with technology. Already, search engines produce AI-compiled answers that users can expand with follow-up questions.

 

Yet, search answers are relatively simple. An AI that handles payroll queries must meet specific parameters. Van Wyk didn’t want another chatbot that simply responded to keywords. Payroll information is very contextual, and the AI must reflect that. Payroll environments are also full of private information, security limits, and regulations that require strict oversight and privileges.

 

These stipulations define the baseline for a useful generative AI payroll assistant. Thus, the engineers at Deel Local Payroll developed AI Assist, a remarkable assistant that can answer payroll questions tailored to the person asking. Employees get specific answers about their payslips, from what they pay in tax to deductions and overtime.

 

Payroll staff additionally use AI Assist to surface and study specific payroll components and formulas, handle detailed queries, and explore the PaySpace platform’s knowledge base. AI Assist provides answers relevant to an organisation’s payroll setup, such as calculation formulas or listing components sharing specific tax codes. Payroll departments also use AI Assist to understand and exploit the PaySpace system’s features.

 

Building trust in AI

 

However, being helpful is not enough. Generative AI can make mistakes. Firms worry about AI’s access to information. Can someone use AI to learn other people’s salaries? Will the AI unearth forgotten and under-supervised data? What about the current data? Payroll information is incredibly sensitive. What if the AI causes a data leak or embeds that information in its model?

 

Developers understand how crucial it is to answer those concerns and use them as their baseline, says Van Wyk.

 

“We are very conservative with AI Assist’s features, focusing on several important things from the start. We host pre-engagements with our customers to identify specific use cases, and we established several rules. The AI will be native to the platform, not an integration. It will conform to ISO and SOC standards, and it will show a user only what they have authority to access. Nobody can ask AI Assist about other people’s salaries if they don’t have the authority to see those details. If a feature can’t meet those criteria, it goes back onto the shelf.”

 

The team designed AI Assist’s infrastructure to ensure sensitive data doesn’t appear to the wrong user or end up inside an AI’s model. Whenever someone interacts with the AI, it creates a temporary instance on secure Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure. No data leaves that space, and access to data depends on the user’s profile as determined by the PaySpace platform.

 

To reduce the risk of hallucinations and other mistakes, the system doesn’t rely solely on the AI model. It runs subsystems that handle specific queries and data access, passing information to the AI.

 

“We cannot use our customers’ data to train the model,” says Van Wyk. “Instead, we have systems that curate the right data and hand information to the AI, which then responds to the user. This is very important and has two advantages. It stops data from leaking into the AI model, and it improves answer accuracy because we directly control the mechanisms that link the data with AI Assist.”

 

Intuitive and effective

 

Hype and misconceptions cloud generative AI’s potential. Deel Local Payroll avoids these issues by focusing on the technology’s most obvious value and deliberately slowing its development pace to ensure maximum, focused benefits.

 

“We start from a basic premise: how can generative AI make things easier for our customers, whether they are working on payroll or need answers from payroll. How do we create thoughtful communication that gives them answers they can trust? It’s that simple, but it’s still very difficult to figure out because this is a new technology with many unknowns. So, we move carefully, test thoughtfully, and involve our customers through user engagements and beta testing.”

 

The results are incredible: “It’s amazing; there’s nothing like it. This will change payroll and every aspect of how we engage with business information. Generative AI done right is changing business for the better.”