Nextrade Group, October 2024

In February 2020, the 33rd African Union Ordinary Session resolved that the Phase III Negotiations of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) would focus on the AfCFTA Protocol on Ecommerce, today called the AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol or Digital Protocol. African Heads of State approved the Protocol in January 2024. Negotiations continue on the eight annexes contemplated for the Protocol.

The purpose of this report is to assess the readiness of African countries to implement the Protocol, assuming many of its provisions reflect provisions adopted by other major digital trade and economy agreements. The data is aimed to serve as a gap analysis and highlight countries and specific areas where African countries may require capacity-building to implement the Protocol. The approach here can also help African countries establish a monitoring framework for the Digital Protocol’s implementation, once the annexes are agreed upon.

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Some key findings from the mapping by provisions are as follows:

• Data privacy: In this index, data privacy provisions were determined by whether a country adopted a legal framework that provides for the protection of the personal information of ecommerce users. Seventy-four percent of mapped African countries have a data privacy law in place. Countries like Burundi, Eritrea, and Libya do not have a data privacy law in place, while countries like The Gambia and Cameroon have a draft law in place.

• Basic provisions on electronic transactions: These provisions included the existence of an electronic transaction framework, whether countries consider electronic signatures as legal and enforceable, and no customs duties on electronic transmissions. Electronic transaction frameworks aim to establish a secure and efficient environment for conducting business and other transactions electronically. Seventy-eight percent of mapped countries have an electronic transaction framework in place, including Chad, Gabon, and the Ivory Coast. Notable countries that do not have the framework in place include Guinea-Bissau and the Republic of Congo. Eswatini, Malawi, and Madagascar consider electronic signatures legal and enforceable, while countries like South Sudan and Eritrea do not. No countries have customs duties on electronic transmissions.

• Cross-border data transfer: Digital trade agreements call for allowing personal information to be transferred across borders when the purpose is related to the business of a covered person. Seventy percent of countries allow free cross-border transfer of data, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana, and Lesotho. Countries that don’t allow the free cross-border transfer of personal data include Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan, mainly because they do not have data protection laws in place to include provisions on cross-border data transfer.

• Localization of computing facilities: Another provision that was examined was server localization, where countries might require a Party to store their data servers in their country. While there are no African countries that outright require all data to be stored domestically, there are a few countries that have localization requirements dependent on sector, including Algeria, Botswana, Egypt, Morocco, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Each of these countries has different types of restrictions in place, but mainly for personal data.

• Paperless Trade: Promotion of paperless trade was measured through whether the country accepts digital trade documents. Only thirty-nine percent of mapped African countries fully accept digital trade documents, while thirty-three percent partially accept, and twenty-eight percent do not yet accept digital trade documents.

• Cybersecurity: The cybersecurity provisions promote countries’ cybersecurity capabilities and cooperation with others. Here, readiness to implement cybersecurity capabilities was measured by the scores from the International Telecommunication Union’s most recent Global Cybersecurity Index. This provision was the least prepared, as zero percent of African countries satisfied the cybersecurity capabilities provision based on the mapping. This is likely attributed to weak regulatory frameworks and possibly a sign of limited ability to invest in a more robust cybersecurity infrastructure.

• Emerging technologies: Emerging technologies such as AI and cloud computing significantly contribute to shaping the future of national economies. To effectively measure the advancement of these technologies, the mapping evaluated the strategic frameworks governments put in place, such as a national AI regulation or strategy, a national cloud-first strategy, and a national digital strategy. National AI strategies outline a country’s commitment to developing and implementing artificial intelligence technologies. 13 percent of African countries have a national AI policy or strategy in place, including Algeria, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Rwanda, and Tunisia.  A cloud-first strategy prioritizes cloud computing solutions and encourages different sectors to adopt cloud-based services.  Nineteen percent of African countries have some type of national cloud-first or cloud-smart strategies, including South Africa, Morocco, and Kenya.  National digital strategies include plans for digital transformation across various sectors and often include specific policies related to promoting digital infrastructure, enhancing digital literacy, and improving access to digital services.  Eighty-three percent of African countries have a national digital strategy in place. Countries that do not have a strategy in place include Guinea, Eritrea, and the Central African Republic.

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