Africa Internet Governance Forum 2025

As Africa accelerates its path toward a digital single market, data governance has emerged as a foundational enabler of trusted cross-border digital trade, regional innovation, and inclusive development. The African Union Data Policy Framework (AU DPF) offers a visionary blueprint for interoperable, rights-based, and development-focused data ecosystems across the continent. Yet the real test lies in implementation — particularly in moving beyond fragmented national approaches toward collaborative, regionally harmonized governance models.

This session brings together representatives from the East African Community, Southern African Development Community, and Economic Community of West African States, with contributions from the AfCFTA Secretariat, alongside voices from civil society and policy research, to examine how Regional Economic Communities are translating the AU DPF into actionable, region-specific instruments that respond to real-world data flows, innovation needs, and human rights obligations.

The discussion will centre on the urgent need to move beyond siloed data sovereignty and rigid protectionist regimes, toward cooperative, trust-based governance anchored in shared norms, policy interoperability, and inclusive, adaptive regulation that enables both innovation and accountability.

Key points of discussion will include:
• EAC’s development of a Regional Data Governance Strategy adapted from the AU DPF, and the ongoing drafting of a Regional Data Protection and Privacy Bill, aimed at enabling seamless, secure, and trusted cross-border data flows, while supporting regional digital payments and integration.
• ECOWAS’s revision of its Supplementary Act on Personal Data Protection, aligning more closely with the AU DPF, while strengthening regulatory capacity and harmonization across member states.
• SADC’s early leadership in shaping a SADC Regional Data Strategy, domesticating AU DPF and moving the region from restrictive data protection toward frameworks that enable responsible data use and cooperation, alongside work to review and modernize the SADC Electronic Transactions and e-Commerce Model Law to enhance digital trust and trade facilitation.
• The evolving role of REC-level instruments in building digital ecosystems that are increasingly interconnected, requiring legal clarity, policy coherence, and shared frameworks of trust and accountability._x000D_
• How the AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol — particularly its annexes on Cross-Border Data Transfers and Digital Payments — can complement REC-led data strategies and offer a pathway for continent-wide alignment between data policy, legal reform, and digital market integration.
This panel will highlight how these regional initiatives, if designed and implemented inclusively, can help reduce fragmentation and establish a pan-African data space that safeguards rights, promotes innovation, and strengthens Africa’s digital economy.

Speakers
-Daniel Murenzi i – Principal ICT Officer, EAC
-Folake Olagunju – Ag Director, Telecommunication and Post, ECOWAS
-Dr George Ah-Thew – Senior Programme Officer, ICT
- Dr Talkmore Chidede – Senior Digital Trade Expert, AfCFTA Secretariat
- Wairagala Wakabi – CIPESA

Moderator - African Union Commission