African Drone Forum Moves From Putting Drones on Africa’s Aviation Map to Building the Rules for Scale

August 18, 2026 in Companies, Infrastructure, Technology & Telecoms, Transport, Travel & Tourism by Editor

The African Drone Forum returns to Aviation Africa in Nairobi for a second year, shifting the conversation from showcasing Africa’s drone potential to building the regulatory, infrastructure, skills, security and investment systems needed to scale autonomous aviation across the continent.

 

The African Drone Forum (ADF) is taking Africa’s drone and autonomous aviation agenda into a more practical phase at the 2026 Aviation Africa Summit, building on the foundation laid by its debut partnership with the summit in Kigali last year.

ADF will return as strategic partner for the Drone and Autonomous Systems Programme at the 10th Aviation Africa Summit and Exhibition, scheduled for September 9–10 at the Sarit Expo Centre in Nairobi, with the 2026 programme placing greater emphasis on how Africa can safely and commercially scale its emerging low-altitude economy.

At Aviation Africa 2025 in Kigali, ADF curated the Drone and Advanced Air Mobility track for the first time, bringing drones, unmanned traffic management (UTM), beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations, regulation and advanced air mobility into the mainstream aviation conversation.

The Kigali summit brought together more than 2,100 delegates, including more than 30 Directors General of Civil Aviation, while ADF’s programme included Africa’s first public demonstration of a pilotless passenger eVTOL aircraft. The discussions also produced calls for regulatory sandboxes, BVLOS corridors, stronger UTM systems and greater harmonisation of regulatory approaches.

ADF’s second year at Aviation Africa therefore represents a move from making the case for drones to addressing the systems needed to make them work at scale.

Under the 2026 theme, “Advancing the Future of Autonomy in Africa,” the programme will examine how policy, investment, talent and infrastructure can unlock the continent’s low-altitude economy.

A major new feature is the inaugural African Drone Regulators Forum (ADRF), a closed-door session on the second day of the summit, bringing together officials responsible for drone regulation within African civil aviation authorities.

ADF explains that rather than another conventional conference panel, the regulators’ forum is designed as a working session where authorities can compare regulatory frameworks, identify common bottlenecks and explore practical approaches to issues such as BVLOS authorisation, UTM governance and training pathways.

This regulatory focus responds directly to one of the central lessons from Kigali where delegates agreed that Africa’s drone opportunity cannot be unlocked by technology alone.

The 2025 discussions highlighted the need for regulatory systems designed around actual missions such as healthcare delivery, agriculture, mining and inspection, while also calling for regulatory sandboxes, harmonised safety assessments and electronic conspicuity to support safer cross-border operations.

The 2026 programme broadens that implementation agenda further with an African Drone Security Forum, examining the growing intersection of drones, artificial intelligence and security.

The forum will look at civil-security cooperation, risk mitigation, detection and response, and responsible deployment of emerging technologies.

Five industry panels will meanwhile address workforce development, BVLOS operations and enabling infrastructure, drone data and AI, advanced air mobility and investment.

The emphasis on infrastructure is particularly important as African markets move beyond individual drone deployments towards integrated systems capable of supporting larger fleets and more complex operations.

ADF says the 2026 programme will therefore focus not simply on regulatory approval but on what comes afterwards, including corridor design, electronic conspicuity, remote identification, coordination with air navigation service providers and sustainable business models.

Nairobi also gives the conversation a practical setting. Kenya is emerging as one of Africa’s most active drone markets, with an operational BVLOS corridor, a live UTM procurement process and a large base of licensed drone training academies.

The programme will be complemented by an ADF Drone and Autonomous Systems Exhibition Pavilion, bringing together African and international companies working in drones, autonomous systems, data and supporting technologies.

While Kigali helped establish that drones and advanced air mobility belong in the continent’s aviation strategy; Nairobi is set to concentrate on the rules, infrastructure, skills, security and investment needed to turn that recognition into an operating ecosystem.

ADF’s return for a second consecutive year suggests that the agenda has moved from putting the technology on the aviation map to working out how Africa can integrate it safely, sustainably and commercially into its skies.