Parsons Legal | Africa-Focused Global Law Firm

October 2025

Across Africa, the digital economy is expanding at a remarkable speed. Artificial intelligence, fintech innovations, cloud computing, and mobile-first solutions are transforming how people live, work, and do business. With this rapid transformation comes the critical determination of who controls the data that fuels this growth?

The doctrine of data sovereignty has become central to this debate. Policymakers increasingly regard data not merely as a digital by-product, but as a strategic resource tied to national security, economic competitiveness, and citizen trust. The sovereignty debate comes with policy tensions given that while stronger data controls can empower states to protect privacy, foster local innovation, and build resilient digital ecosystems, a patchwork of uncoordinated national rules could risk creating digital fragmentation, raising costs for businesses, discouraging cross-border trade, and deterring investment. Thus, Africa now stands at a crossroads. Will data sovereignty become a catalyst for integration and sustainable growth, or a barrier that limits the continent’s ability to compete in the global digital economy?

In this feature, we examine how Africa can balance localisation, integration, and investment to build a trusted and competitive digital future.

Africa’s Data Sovereignty in Global Context

The term “data sovereignty” has taken on multiple, sometimes conflicting meanings. Within legal contexts, the notion may refer to a legal entitlement, such as a nation’s right to regulate its own data or an Indigenous people’s right to govern data about their communities. As a legal framework, it may also underscore the body of laws determining which jurisdiction’s rules apply to data storage and access. This includes data localisation laws that require information to remain within national borders.

Furthermore, the notion has been explained as an extension of national sovereignty in the sense that control over data is now as fundamental to sovereignty as control over land, sea, or airspace, linking it to geopolitical power and national security. In reality, these perspectives are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they reveal that data sovereignty sits at the intersection of law, capability, and policy ambition.

For African states, a pragmatic understanding is essential. Data sovereignty should be treated as the lawful and practical ability of a nation or regional bloc to control, govern, and derive value from data generated within its territory, in a way that protects citizens’ rights, promotes trust, and enables cross-border digital trade.

Africa’s Legal and Policy Landscape

The conversation on data sovereignty in Africa is unfolding through a patchwork of national laws, infrastructure investments, and geopolitical alignments that reveal both the continent’s digital ambitions and its structural constraints. Over 35 African countries have now enacted some form of data protection legislation, with Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa among the most advanced.

However, implementation remains inconsistent, with frameworks lacking independent regulators, clear enforcement mechanisms, or cross-border interoperability provisions. At the continental level, the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection (the Malabo Convention), adopted in 2014, still faces slow ratification. Fewer than 20 member states have ratified it, leaving vast regions without harmonised data protection or cyber governance standards.

This lag contrasts with the European Union’s GDPR and emerging regional initiatives in Asia, where there are established enforceable norms for data processing, localisation, and privacy. Africa’s lag in achieving similar coherence underscores a deeper policy dilemma as to how to assert digital sovereignty without stifling the innovation and integration needed for scale.

A key trend is the push for data localisation, requiring companies to store or process data within national borders as a means of asserting control. This approach is influenced by governance models like China’s state-centric model that asserts the government's ultimate authority over data within its borders, driven by national security, economic development, and social stability goal. Senegal was the first African country to adopt the approach of emphasising strong state control and mandatory local hosting.

Across the African continent, over 700 new data centres are projected to be built within the next decade, many of which are to be funded or operated by foreign hyperscalers and multinational corporations. While this reflects strong investor confidence, it also raises concerns about “data capitalism” or even “data colonialism”, where foreign entities dominate digital infrastructure ownership, value extraction, and governance. Without sufficient local energy reliability, connectivity, skills and a balanced regulatory framework, these facilities risk becoming enclaves of external control rather than engines of local digital empowerment.

What is clear is that true capacity and digital equality are crucial in balancing the policy reasons for data regulation in this area since Africa’s pursuit of data sovereignty is purely a geopolitical balancing act that must reconcile legitimate security and economic interests with the risk of new forms of dependency.

Challenges and Pathways to a Competitive Digital Economy

While the appeal of data sovereignty is clear - promising national control, economic empowerment, and digital trust, its practical implementation presents significant challenges. Understanding them is crucial for African governments and businesses seeking to build sustainable digital economies. These challenges are presented across the key focus areas outlined below.

The Nature of Data Defies Traditional Notions of Control

Unlike land, oil, or gold, data is non-rivalrous, which means it can be copied, shared, and transferred at near-zero cost without any loss of quality. This fluidity makes traditional sovereignty analogies (such as territory, borders, ownership) difficult to sustain. Further, the meaning and value of data are context-dependent and can alternate across applications, sectors, and geographies. In Africa’s emerging data markets, this means sovereignty cannot simply mean “keeping data at home.” Instead, it must mean developing the capacity to understand, govern, and extract value from data, wherever it flows.

Digital sovereignty must extend beyond data localization. While there is justification for the approach of mandating data to be stored within national borders or in locally owned data centres, there may simply risk creating isolated data silos which barely yield real autonomy or value creation without adequate governance frameworks, technical capacity, or regulatory oversight.

Recommendation: True sovereignty must therefore be functional, not merely territorial and will require the capability to understand, govern, and monetise data flows, wherever they occur. This means investing in the analytical, institutional, and technological capacity to extract insight, ensure compliance, and participate competitively in global digital value chains. Regional approaches under frameworks like the AU Data Policy Framework or the AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol can also help reframe sovereignty as shared capability rather than rigid localisation, promoting both control and connectivity.

Infrastructure Design Shapes Sovereignty

Africa’s data infrastructure remains heavily reliant on foreign hyperscalers and external cloud ecosystems, which control where data is stored, how it is managed, and who can access it. Centraliszed cloud infrastructure, combined with inadequate local connectivity and energy reliability, creates a position of digital dependency.

Recommendation: African governments must pursue technical sovereignty and the capacity to design, manage, and interconnect their own digital infrastructure. This means promoting interoperable, modular, and open architectures that prevent vendor lock-in, expanding regional cloud infrastructure partnerships, and incentivising African-owned data infrastructure through blended financing and public–private models.

The Knowledge Gap in Data Governance

Sovereignty is meaningless without comprehension. Across the continent, both public institutions and private enterprises increasingly adopt digital platforms and cloud services without a clear grasp of where their data resides, under what legal regimes it operates, or how it is processed and monetised. This epistemic gap creates vulnerabilities to data misuse, privacy breaches, and external control. It also constrains innovation, as uncertainty about compliance deters firms, especially SMEs, from embracing cloud technologies or cross-border services. Bridging this gap demands a multi-level response.

Recommendation: Governments must strengthen regulatory literacy and institutional capability. Attention should also be placed on establishing independent data authorities empowered to audit, trace, and assess data flows. Businesses need governance frameworks and risk-assessment tools that map their data assets and obligations. Regionally, shared standards for data classification, metadata transparency, and legal interoperability could enable Africa to manage its data ecosystems with greater confidence.

Parsons’ Expertise

Parsons stands at the forefront of Africa’s evolving data landscape, serving as the go-to Firm for organisations and even the government on navigating the complex intersection of data governance, regulatory compliance and digital sovereignty. We understand that Africa’s digital transformation depends not only on technological innovation, but also on the creation of robust, context-sensitive frameworks that protect data, foster trust and promote sustainable digital growth.

Leveraging our multidisciplinary expertise, Parsons provides end-to-end advisory support on data governance, privacy compliance, cross-border data flows, localisation strategies, and policy development.

Conclusion

Africa’s data sovereignty challenge is not just about where data is stored but who owns, governs, and benefits from it. True digital sovereignty will require African-owned infrastructure, indigenous data governance frameworks, and capacity-building initiatives that empower local regulators, businesses, and civil society to manage data responsibly and transparently.

Momentum is building for more coherent continental action. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Digital Trade Protocol and the AU Data Policy Framework represent important steps toward regional harmonisation, interoperability, and cross-border trust. If effectively implemented, these initiatives could position Africa not as a passive consumer of global data norms but as an active architect of its digital destiny.

Legal Disclaimer: This publication is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal advice. The information provided herein may not be applicable to your specific circumstances and should not be relied upon as legal counsel. For advice tailored to your situation, you should consult with qualified legal counsel.

Contact us to discuss opportunities across Africa’s critical digital economy at info@Parsons-legal.com.