By Juliet Umeh

Despite generating an increasing share of the world’s digital data, Africa captures less than three per cent of the economic value created by the global data economy due to weak governance frameworks, a technology and infrastructure law expert has warned.

Partner at G&A Advocates LLP, Moses Kipkogei, said the continent’s inability to unlock value from its vast digital footprint is not a technology problem but a governance challenge, urging governments to move beyond data protection towards comprehensive data governance.

According to him, Africa’s data economy is projected to be worth about $290 billion by 2030, yet the continent continues to earn only a fraction of the value generated from the data it produces.

“Every day, the world generates enormous volumes of data, and Africa contributes a significant and growing share of that torrent. 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 investors seeking opportunities in African markets often struggle to obtain reliable sectoral, demographic and consumer data because information remains scattered across government agencies, telecommunications operators and global technology platforms with no framework for responsible sharing.

“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 most of our countries, the honest answer is that nobody knows, at least not officially,” he said.

Kipkogei argued that while African countries have rightly prioritised protecting citizens’ personal information through data protection laws, policymakers have neglected the governance of anonymised and aggregated data that could drive economic development.

According to him, personal information accounts for only a tiny proportion of the data generated daily, while the bulk of non-personal data remains locked away because organisations fear breaching privacy regulations.

“The safest response for many institutions has become sharing nothing at all, even where there is no legal barrier to using anonymised data,” he said.

He noted that the consequences are already affecting development across the continent.

“The costs are measurable. Hospitals cannot adequately plan bed capacity because patient-flow data is inaccessible. Roads are built without analysing movement patterns already available within telecommunications networks. Investors spend days trying to understand markets and leave without committing capital because the information they need simply cannot be found,” he added.

Kipkogei cited studies showing that increased mobile data utilisation could add up to two percentage points to GDP growth, while better access to administrative data could reduce the cost of doing business and improve resource allocation across African economies.

He welcomed the African Union’s Data Policy Framework adopted in 2022 for recognising the need to balance privacy with economic use of data but noted that many countries are yet to translate the framework into national legislation.

To reverse the trend, he urged governments to establish dedicated national data governance policies separate from data protection laws, providing clear rules for sharing anonymised and aggregate datasets.

He also called on companies holding large volumes of data to seek legal guidance on responsible data sharing and encouraged greater investment in digital infrastructure capable of processing data at scale.

“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 systems required to convert 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 architecture to govern, share and benefit from what is ours,” he said.