Lack of harmonised laws hurts Africa's ICT take-off

Across Africa, governments and private sector players have poured significant investments into digital infrastructure—from sprawling fibre optic networks to booming mobile payments platforms.

Yet, as innovation races ahead, regulation is often lagging, slowed down by legacy mindsets among policymakers and slow-moving policy processes. This has resulted in the regulatory environment remaining inconsistent, frequently playing catch-up with industry developments.

In some cases, policymakers have made proposals that seem out of step with digital realities, such as attempts to restrict social media use.

While many of these initiatives are abandoned at early stages, they have found their way back. 

These include governments attempts to ban some of the platforms entirely, while others including Kenya have tried to tax content creators as well as made such requirements as the need to have physical presence in the country.

This could reflect a possible mismatch between the pace of technology and the speed of legislation.

“Across Africa, we are seeing different levels of appreciation of the digital economy and from that, the policies that come out of that,” said the Director of Public Policy and Government Relations at TikTok for Sub-Saharan Africa, Fortune Mgwili–Sibanda.

He noted that while there are countries that have progressive policies, there are those that still need major improvements. “When coming up with content on policy, it is always good to consider what has worked or not worked elsewhere. Policymakers do not need to reinvent the wheel,” he said. 

“It is also ideal to have future-looking policies that not just regulate to solve a problem today. When it comes to technology, policy can easily be outdated by the time you sign it into law. That will then need to be amended, and that is expensive.”

Beyond having policies that work at the national level, Sibanda noted that the bigger opportunity lies in harmonising laws across Africa.

This is especially aligning policies around key areas like digital infrastructure, digital payments, data protection, and content safety across.

He noted that harmonising digital economy policies would be a major advancement in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). “If we could think about harmonising policies across different countries... we have seen what happens within the European Union (EU) and this has resulted in predictability,” said Sibanda.  “Across the 27 EU countries, there is one privacy law, and as an investor, you know what to get from one country to another.”

He added: “If in Africa, we can do the same, we have an opportunity with AfCFTA… it is massive. If we can address all those things that we think could be a problem in terms of tech adoption, safety, digital skills and payments. Let us address them to come up with one digital economy policy to cover all of Africa.”

This kind of predictability and clarity, he noted, attracts investment.  It gives startups and entrepreneurs the confidence to scale across borders.

It strengthens consumer protection without stifling innovation - reducing friction in trade—digital and otherwise.

He gave an example of a young fashion designer in Kenya who wants to sell their products in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

“Under the current system, they might face different digital payment systems, logistics hurdles, content restrictions or data laws,” he notes, despite both countries being part of not just the same continent but are part of the East African Community (EAC).

“Harmonisation is key, and it would mean that there will be logistics, there will be payment systems. It can unlock a lot of things for our economies.”

Demographic advantage

Sibanda also noted that the youth are a critical prolong in growing the African digital economy. With a median age of just 19.5 years and a population projected to double by 2050, the continent has an unmatched demographic advantage.

But turning that into prosperity depends heavily on how inclusive and future-oriented its digital policies become, according to Sibanda.

“This youth dividend that we have been talking about, we can be able to unlock it using digital tools… if we protect and empower our young people online” he said, adding that harmonising regulations and having adaptive and forward-looking regulations could be the difference between isolated digital wins and a true continental leap forward.

Harmonisation is, however, a hard sell, considering different levels of ICT adoption among different countries and the political goodwill. Harmonising digital policies and having a regional digital economy is a dream harboured by the African Union (AU), which in its Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa (2020—2030, notes that “digital transformation is a driving force for innovative, inclusive and sustainable growth”. 

It adds that innovations and digitalisation have been stimulating job creation, addressing poverty and reducing inequality.