For a change, governments must address barriers to the use of cloud technologies and, specifically, the cross-border transfer of data across the continent to unlock innovation. The adoption of cloud technologies is uneven across countries, as concerns about data security and jurisdictions, plus the reliance on a few influential global providers are factors leading many African countries to continually rely on local data storage solutions. These limitations have increasingly conflicted with the regional expansion of African startups, such as those in FinTech, which depend on scalable data platforms for their business. AfriLabs will continue to contribute to developing coherent data governance policies and frameworks to unlock the potential benefits of data across and within countries. We will address areas such as the AU Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection, data standards, interoperability of national data infrastructure and digital security. For a head-start, AfriLabs is already participating in the Cloud and Data Centres for Africa initiative hosted as part of the Smart Africa Secretariat portfolio in collaboration with the AU to address some of the concerns and advocate for governments to embrace best practices for cloud policy and data regulation on the continent.
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