By Kingsley Samuel
Africa could forfeit an estimated $290 billion data economy by 2030 unless governments urgently establish policies that unlock the economic value of data while safeguarding privacy, a technology and infrastructure law expert has warned.
Partner at G&A Advocates LLP, Moses Kipkogei, said although the continent is generating an increasing share of the world’s digital data, it captures less than three per cent of the value created in the global data economy because of weak data governance.
According to him, Africa’s challenge is no longer a shortage of data but the absence of governance frameworks that allow anonymised and aggregated data to be shared responsibly for innovation, investment and economic planning.
“The continent’s data economy is projected to be worth $290 billion by 2030. Yet Africa captures less than three per cent of the value generated from the global data economy. The data is here. The wealth it should be generating is not. The gap between those two facts is not a technology problem. It is a governance problem,” Kipkogei said.
He explained that despite rapid growth in mobile connectivity and digital services, valuable datasets remain fragmented across government agencies, mobile network operators and global technology companies, making it difficult for businesses and investors to access reliable information.
“When an international investor sits down to assess an African market, one of the first questions they ask is: What does the data say? In many of our countries, the honest answer is that nobody knows, at least not officially. The data exists somewhere, but there is no framework to surface it, no policy to govern its use and no infrastructure to process it at scale,” he said.
Kipkogei argued that African countries have focused almost exclusively on protecting personal data through privacy legislation while overlooking the economic opportunities presented by anonymised and aggregate data.
He noted that while personal information deserves strong legal protection, it represents only a small fraction of the data generated daily.
“The vast majority of data produced by governments, hospitals, financial institutions and businesses is non-personal and can be shared lawfully. Yet many organisations have adopted the safest response of sharing nothing at all,” he said.
According to him, the consequences are already slowing economic growth across the continent.
He said hospitals struggle to plan healthcare services because patient-flow data remains inaccessible, infrastructure projects are often executed without analysing available mobility data, while investors frequently leave African markets without committing capital due to the absence of reliable information.
Citing international studies, Kipkogei said improved mobile data utilisation could contribute up to two percentage points to GDP growth, while wider access to administrative data could reduce the cost of doing business and improve public resource allocation.
He welcomed the African Union’s Data Policy Framework adopted in 2022 but noted that many African governments are yet to translate its recommendations into national legislation.
To unlock the continent’s digital economy, he called on governments to develop national data governance policies distinct from existing data protection laws, with clear rules for the responsible sharing of anonymised data.
He also urged private sector organisations to embrace lawful data sharing and invest in infrastructure capable of processing large datasets.
“Data governance is no longer just a compliance issue. It is an investment issue,” he said.
Drawing a comparison between data and natural resources, Kipkogei said Africa possesses enormous digital assets but lacks the governance architecture needed to transform them into economic prosperity.
“If data is the new oil, Africa is sitting on enormous reserves with no refineries, no pipelines and no coherent extraction policy. The question is whether we will continue watching others profit from our reserves or finally build the systems to govern, share and benefit from what is ours,” he said.
