Data Exchange Across African Borders: Investigating Policy Strategies and Potential Routes to Regulatory Harmonization
In the rapidly evolving digital landscape of Africa, a growing awareness and effort are being directed towards creating interoperable cross-border data flow policies. This initiative aims to strike a balance between enabling digital trade and protecting data privacy and sovereignty in the continent's increasingly interconnected digital economy.
The policy considerations and opportunities for convergence on cross-border data flows across Africa are centred on achieving regulatory interoperability while respecting national data sovereignty and privacy concerns. African countries and regional entities are working to establish common, principle-based frameworks that enable safe, convenient, and mutually agreed cross-border data transfers.
Key policy considerations include developing taxonomy and legal approaches for inter-African data flows that harmonize rules across different jurisdictions. Existing frameworks such as adequacy decisions, certification mechanisms, standard contractual clauses (SCCs), and binding corporate rules (BCRs) are being leveraged to facilitate data transfer. Sub-regional initiatives are encouraged to align data governance policies, and Africa's Digital Transformation Strategy (2020-2030) is being capitalized on to promote open standards and interoperability for cross-border trust and data flows.
An annex to a June 2025 Issue Brief highlights Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Rwanda, and Ivory Coast as countries with explicit cross-border data transfer provisions. These countries have developed or are developing legal tools and mechanisms to allow or regulate cross-border data flows, potentially including SCCs and adequacy-type arrangements. South Africa, in particular, operates an increasingly restrictive data localization and transfer framework with multiple regulatory mechanisms that affect cross-border data flows.
Other countries in Africa are still at various stages of formalizing such mechanisms, often influenced by broader regional economic communities’ efforts (e.g., ECOWAS, EAC) and continental strategies. The taxonomy of cross-border data regimes in Africa identifies two common approaches: countries with no cross-border data flows provisions and countries with restrictions for transferring personal data to other African countries.
The practical implementation of transfer tools remains uneven across the continent. Ongoing sub-regional efforts to shape frameworks for cross-border data flows include the work by the African Union, ECOWAS, EAC, and SADC. The Issue Brief provides an overview of the current policy landscape for inter-African cross-border data flows and proposes possible paths toward regulatory cooperation.
However, it is important to note that some African countries lack comprehensive data protection laws, which may omit cross-border data flow provisions from their legislation. This underlines the diversity of legal frameworks and enforcement capacity across jurisdictions. The African Union and its Member States have expressed concern about the ability to transfer personal data across borders efficiently and securely due to the growing drive towards data-driven technologies.
The Issue Brief does not discuss any potential challenges or obstacles in achieving interoperable data transfer frameworks across the continent, leaving room for further research and discussion in this crucial area. The final section of the Issue Brief encourages African countries to work towards interoperable data transfer frameworks, paving the way for a more connected and secure digital future for the continent.
- In the context of Africa's digital economy, global data-and-cloud-computing technology plays a significant role in the development and implementation of interoperable cross-border data flow policies, aiming to balance digital trade, data privacy, and sovereignty.
- As regional entities collaborate to establish common, principle-based frameworks for cross-border data transfers, the finance industry stands to benefit from increased regulatory interoperability and enhanced data governance in the African digital industry.
- In light of the diverse legal frameworks and varying levels of data protection across African countries, the promotion of interoperable cross-border data transfer frameworks is crucial for the continental digital economy to fully leverage opportunities presented by data-driven technologies.
