Each year, major pan-African conferences on personal data protection and digital governance reiterate the same promise: to harmonize African legal frameworks concerning data protection. Yet, on the ground, concrete progress struggles to keep pace with these repeated commitments. While many countries on the continent are adopting national legislations at a sustained rhythm, regional harmonization remains incomplete. Isn’t it time to move beyond these declarations of intent and finally initiate genuine strategic coordination actions at the continental level?
A Real, but Fragmented, Awareness
Adopted in 2014, the African Union Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection (known as the Malabo Convention) aimed to establish a harmonized continental legal framework, adapted to the legal, cultural, economic, and social realities of the African continent. However, more than a decade later, only 16 states have ratified it. Many countries continue to ignore this continental instrument, preferring to focus on their national legislations.
Sub-regional organizations, such as ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) or SADC (Southern African Development Community), have attempted to harmonize the legislations and practices of their member states by promoting guiding principles for transposition and encouraging the establishment of data protection authorities. However, these initiatives often face a double obstacle: insufficient resources to ensure their implementation and follow-up, and the reluctance of certain member states. As an illustration, within the ECOWAS space, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea Bissau have still not transposed the regional standards. Nigeria, for its part, only did so recently, in 2019 and notably in 2023. The result: a fragmented legal framework that hinders cross-border cooperation, impedes the free flow of data, and undermines citizens’ trust in the digital economy.
Why is Harmonization Stagnating?
Several factors explain the delay in constructing a harmonized legal framework at the continental level:
- Lack of political will: Personal data protection is still too often perceived as a luxury or a bureaucratic constraint, rather than as a fundamental right or a strategic lever for development. Economic and security priorities take precedence over data protection and individual freedoms.
- Deficit in technical and financial capacities: Many countries lack the resources to implement existing laws or participate in ambitious regional projects.
- Absence of clear continental leadership: Neither the African Union nor the sub-regional organizations have, until now, managed to impose a shared vision or define an action plan engaging all member states.
- Poor understanding of collective stakes: Data protection is too often considered within a strictly national logic. However, it touches upon transversal issues: digital sovereignty, collective freedoms, economic competitiveness, and common cultural values. In the absence of coordination, isolated initiatives remain ineffective against the global strategies pursued by companies. A fragmented response exposes each state to avoidance by economic actors; only a unified strategy by African states would allow for building a strong and coherent position at the continental level.
From Talk to Action: Concrete Avenues for True Harmonization?
Faced with this stagnation, it is urgent to move from a logic of declarations of intent to a strategy of operational coordination. Here are some proposals:
- Creation of a dedicated African coordination body for personal data protection endowed with powers of advice, monitoring, and the formulation of harmonized recommendations at the continental level.
- Launch of joint capacity-building programs, with mutualized funding, to train Data Protection Officers (DPOs) and support regulatory authorities still in the structuring phase.
- Development of regional cooperation pilot projects, particularly on cross-border data transfers or the coordinated management of major data breaches.
- Conditioning certain financings of pan-African digital projects (funded by the African Development Bank or other donors) on compliance with minimum common data protection standards.
- Engage civil society and the private sector more closely, as their dynamism and expertise already play a key role in shaping ideas and driving concrete action on the ground.
Africa can no longer afford to wait. Harmonization of personal data protection frameworks must be more than just a wish. It is a prerequisite for the emergence of an integrated, competitive digital market that respects fundamental rights. The time has come to turn rhetoric into concrete action.