 |
| Pix credit here |
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Collaboration in Partnership with the African Telecommunications Union have created the Africa Technology Policy Tracker. This is described as the "first ever continent-wide aggregate of digital economy laws, policies and regulations in Africa" (here).
AfTech is a research and policy tool that advances evidence-based policymaking in Africa’s rapidly evolving digital economy by providing a one-stop repository of national and continental technology frameworks. By cataloging policies across key pillars like digital infrastructure, platforms, skills, and innovation, AfTech makes it easy to explore, compare, and analyze policy actions shaping the continent’s digital future. AfTech offers valuable insights into the diverse approaches countries are taking toward digital governance. Our aim is to enhance visibility on the burgeoning digital policy environment in Africa and for AfTech to become an essential resource that informs decisionmaking, fosters cross-border collaboration, and helps guide the continent toward a more integrated and resilient digital economy. (here).
The focus is on development. This aligns both with the Chinese focus on socialist modernization with atonality characteristics organized around its global programs (the genesis of which was the Belt & Road Initiative) and the America First focus on development through bilateral transactions in markets that expand both production and capacity n home and host states.
 |
| Pix credit here |
The spreadsheet of laws and regulations may be download HERE.
Jane Munga has also prepared an accompanying policy brief: Africa’s Digital Infrastructure Imperative. The Introduction and "Key Takeaways" follows below.
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital pub-
lic infrastructure (DPI) has brought renewed focus on
technology policy across a continent whose policy ar-
chitecture is deeply fragmented. Fifty-five governance
regimes offer diverse policy instruments, even as the
technology they govern is increasingly interlinking
economic and geographic ecosystems beyond borders.
Efforts by the African Union, such as the Continental
Artificial Intelligence Strategy and the Malabo Con-
vention on cybersecurity, have sought to bring com-
mon frameworks and understanding. Despite these
initiatives, disparate governance ecosystems abound.
While this diversity is a natural result of national sov-
ereignty, it does complicate efforts to identify broader
continental narratives in Africa’s digital landscape.
To provide a common analytical framework while ac-
counting for national nuances, the AfTech platform
organizes documents through four lenses. First, all
legal and policy instruments are grouped into four
digital economy pillars: digital infrastructure, digital
platforms, digital innovation, and digital skills. Sec-
ond, documents are categorized by type of legal instru-
ment—policy or strategy, law, or regulation. Third,
documents are classified by institutional origin, distin-
guishing between national governments and the Afri-
can Union—the only continental institution captured
in the tracker. Finally, the tracker applies twenty-five
key data points to tag documents, revealing that they
cluster in three thematic areas: foundational infrastruc-
ture, which includes the physical systems required for
internet delivery, such as broadband expansion, sub-
marine cables, terrestrial fiber, and data centers;
digital platforms, including digital payments,
digital identification, and e-government services;
and safeguards, such as consumer protection, data
protection, and cybersecurity (see glossary for the
full list).
Each of these lenses provides a distinct view into
the continent’s digital economy landscape and al-
lows new insights to emerge from the data. Within
this framework, the pillar classification reveals a
clear highest priority: Digital infrastructure domi-
nates, appearing in 90 percent of documents in the
AfTech repository. Notably, 57 percent of all docu-
ments tracked are solely focused on
digital infrastructure, underscoring its role as
the foundational anchor of Africa’s digital economy. By contrast,
the other three pillars are far less prominent as
standalone priorities and appear predominantly in
combination, indicating that digital platforms, in-
novation, and skills are interdependent elements of
a thriving digital economy for Africa.
This brief examines Africa’s policy focus on digital
infrastructure—with a focus on the past three de-
cades—in greater depth, drawing out critical nu-
ances and distilling five key takeaways and three
policy implications. Taken together, these insights
show that Africa’s most prominent technology pol-
icy feature—digital infrastructure—is not a narrow
connectivity agenda. Rather, it is a complex policy
domain with critical interlinkages that illuminate
the broader purpose behind its prominence: build-
ing the foundations for inclusive participation in
the continent’s digital economy. This framing car-
ries important implications for how governments,
partners, investors, and researchers understand and
engage with Africa’s digital infrastructure agenda.
Key Takeaways
Digital Infrastructure Is a Persistent
but Evolving Policy Priority
AfTech reveals that digital infrastructure has been
a constant policy priority of African governments
and institutions over time (see figure 2). The track-
er defines digital infrastructure as the elements
that provide the means for people, businesses, and
governments to get online and access digital ser-
vices—from physical assets such as subsea cables,
telecommunications towers, fiber optic networks,
and data centers to less visible enabling layers such
as spectrum. In practice, however, this defini-
tion is dynamic and has broadened over time, as
evidenced by the overlay of key data points across
digital infrastructure–tagged documents.
Digital Infrastructure Policy Is
Multilayered and Expansive
The digital infrastructure pillar, when examined
through key data point clusters—foundational
infrastructure, digital platforms, and safeguards—
emerges as inherently integrated and multilayered.
Digital infrastructure policy is not limited to de-
livering on the internet delivery chain; rather, it
extends to trust architecture and the digital appli-
cations and services that enable meaningful inter-
net use. In practice, this reflects a broader policy
objective across Africa’s digital economy: building
infrastructure that not only connects users but en-
sures they can benefit from it and that its use is
governed effectively.
Digital Infrastructure Policy Priorities
Are Shifting with Technological Change
The multilayered composition of digital infrastruc-
ture helps reveal how policy priorities across the
continent are evolving over time, as illustrated in
figure 3 and table 2.
Shifts in digital infrastructure underscore how Af-
rica’s digital economy is advancing in parallel with
global technological change, including the recent
focus on AI. Relatedly, there is evidence that Af-
rica’s digital infrastructure agenda has also incorpo-
rated the development of DPI rails. Beginning in
the past decade, policy attention has increasingly
focused on digital identification and digital pay-
ments—concepts now widely popularized by DPI
advocates.
Digital Infrastructure Demand Is
Cumulative and Expanding
Africa’s digital infrastructure challenge is not policy
neglect, but sequential and cumulative demand. As
new technological layers emerge—including those
required to support AI—they are added onto the
continent’s existing connectivity priorities. The re-
sult is an expanding infrastructure agenda, where
new demands accumulate even as foundational
gaps persist. This dynamic raises a central question
for the continent: Can the current policy momen-
tum translate into infrastructure delivery at the
scale and pace required to support Africa’s digital
transformation ambitions?
This question is particularly consequential given
the scale of Africa’s digital divide. Current esti-
mates suggest that only 36 percent of Africans
use the internet, despite more than 80 percent
of the population living within reach of a broad-
band signal. This usage gap is driven primarily by
socioeconomic barriers such as skills and costs—
particularly handset affordability and data prices.
This surfaces a critical imperative for Africa’s digi-
tal infrastructure agenda: Infrastructure must not
only be built but also be affordable. Policy must
encompass last-mile initiatives that expand access
and seek to reduce costs.
Digital Infrastructure Policy Is Shifting
Toward a Data-Centric Model
To better understand current policy priorities in
digital infrastructure, this analysis examines the ten
most prevalent data points for the period 2021–
2025 (see figure 4).
These data points confirm that Africa’s digital in-
frastructure agenda continues to prioritize foun-
dational infrastructure, layered with safeguards
and applications (see figure 5). The emphasis on
connectivity remains at the forefront, but with a
growing focus on data, applications—particularly
digital commerce—and the trust and security ar-
chitecture that underpins them.
Universal and Quality Access
The prominence of both broadband and last mile—
understood as how internet arrives in the hands of
the end-user, encompassing socioeconomic factors
of affordability and skills—shows that policymak-
ers are focused on both the technical and socioeco-
nomic aspects of universal access. Additionally, the
prominence of quality of service—defined by the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
as “the totality of characteristics of a telecommu-
nications service that bear on its ability to satisfy
stated and implied needs of the user of the ser-
vice”—alongside last mile and broadband indicates
that policymakers are concerned not only with the
ability to connect, but also with the quality of the
end-user experience. In practice, this includes ad-
dressing issues such as dropped calls and unreliable
access to high-speed internet. This is particularly
critical in Africa, where higher network bands such
of the population living within reach of a broad-
band signal. This usage gap is driven primarily by
socioeconomic barriers such as skills and costs—
particularly handset affordability and data prices.
This surfaces a critical imperative for Africa’s digi-
tal infrastructure agenda: Infrastructure must not
only be built but also be affordable. Policy must
encompass last-mile initiatives that expand access
and seek to reduce costs.
Digital Infrastructure Policy Is Shifting
Toward a Data-Centric Model
To better understand current policy priorities in
digital infrastructure, this analysis examines the ten
most prevalent data points for the period 2021–
2025 (see figure 4).
These data points confirm that Africa’s digital in-
frastructure agenda continues to prioritize foun-
dational infrastructure, layered with safeguards
and applications (see figure 5). The emphasis on
connectivity remains at the forefront, but with a
growing focus on data, applications—particularly
digital commerce—and the trust and security ar-
chitecture that underpins them.
Universal and Quality Access
The prominence of both broadband and last mile—
understood as how internet arrives in the hands of
the end-user, encompassing socioeconomic factors
of affordability and skills—shows that policymak-
ers are focused on both the technical and socioeco-
nomic aspects of universal access. Additionally, the
prominence of quality of service—defined by the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
as “the totality of characteristics of a telecommu-
nications service that bear on its ability to satisfy
stated and implied needs of the user of the ser-
vice”—alongside last mile and broadband indicates
that policymakers are concerned not only with the
ability to connect, but also with the quality of the
end-user experience. In practice, this includes ad-
dressing issues such as dropped calls and unreliable
access to high-speed internet. This is particularly
critical in Africa, where higher network bands such
as 5G are often concentrated in urban areas, creat-
ing significant gaps in the quality of engagement
with broadband between users in different regions.
AI-Data Era
Data—widely regarded as the foundation for AI—
emerges as a dominant policy focus beginning in
2021 alongside data centers and cloud services, sig-
naling that African technology policy has shifted
to embrace the AI era. This aligns with the steady
growth of AI policies and strategies across Afri-
can countries—noted in related research—which
position data as a key foundation for
building AI capabilities. Additionally,
this shift reflects a broader reorienta-
tion of Africa’s digital infrastructure
agenda toward a data-centric model, where the fo-
cus extends beyond infrastructure itself to the asset
that flows through it.
Digital infrastructure determines not only how
data flows, but also how it is generated, moved,
and governed. The prominence of data protection
and cybersecurity reinforces this shift toward AI.
This is a consequential development, as data gover-
nance now presses directly onto digital infrastruc-
ture, effectively defining the terms of engagement
for infrastructure itself. For partners seeking to
invest in Africa’s digital infrastructure, the implica-
tion is clear: Infrastructure and data governance are
no longer separable—they are co-constitutive.
DPI and AI Linkage
The DPI approach outlined earlier in this brief is
reinforced by the prominence of digital identifi-
cation, digital payments, and data among policy
priorities for 2021–2025—signaling the growing
alignment of DPI and AI as complementary policy
approaches.
No comments:
Post a Comment