Addis Ababa, Ethiopia--Africa needs a six-fold increase in data centres to 700 by 2050 to scale up digital transformation amid calls for countries to ratify a continental convention on data security, an expert said Monday.
The African Union convention on Cyber Security and Data Protection, which is aimed at building an information society, entered into force last year after Mauritania became the 15th member to ratify, nine years after the convention was adopted by an African Union Assembly.
Forty countries, including Zimbabwe, are yet to ratify the convention.
Martin Koyabe, senior manager Africa Hub Global Forum on Cyber Expertise, told participants at the session on Leveraging Data and Sustainable Data Centers: Advancing Africa’s Digital Future through the Digital Investment Facility and a Continental Green Data Centre Master Plan on Monday that countries need to move with speed to ratify the convention.
The session was held under the PIDA Week which runs from November 25 to 29 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“Those who are close to the central power you should go back and convince them to ratify the Malabo convention,” Koyabe said.
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He said there was a need to ensure there is a secure framework to ensure that “we have a secure framework and data centres work in an environment that is secure”.
“Every country has an obligation for necessary framework and policy to ensure that data is protected,” Koyabe said.
The African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Data Protection, also known as the Malabo Convention, was adopted by the AU Assembly in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in 2014 as and seen as a building block to digital transformation.
The AU’s Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa (2020-2030) has a vision of an integrated and inclusive digital society and economy in Africa that improves the quality of life of Africa’s citizens, strengthen the existing economic sector, enable its diversification and development, and ensure continental ownership with Africa as a producer and not only a consumer in the global economy.
Its overall objective is to harness digital technologies and innovation to transform African societies and economies to promote Africa's integration, generate inclusive economic growth, stimulate job creation, break the digital divide, and eradicate poverty for the continent’s socio-economic development and ensure Africa’s ownership of modern tools of digital management.
Last month, Zimbabwe gazetted the Cyber and Data Protection (Licensing of Data Controllers and Appointment of Data Protection Officers) Regulations, 2024 which touched off a storm by prescribing that some WhatsApp administrators should obtain licences.
Legal think-tank, Veritas, says the regulations are unconstitutional and infringe upon various fundamental rights.
These regulations, which require the licensing of anyone who processes even the smallest amount of personal data, are surely unreasonable, the Legislature cannot have envisaged the minister using his or her powers to make such regulations. For that reason the regulations are ultra vires the Act.
“A further ground for regarding the regulations ultra vires is that they create criminal offences for which swingeing penalties can be imposed — up to seven years imprisonment.
“There is nothing in the Act that empowers the minister to create offences and penalties and such a power needs to be given expressly; it is not to be simply presumed.”
Kayobe said African countries need to protect their data centres to ensure they are more resilient and the services are protected.
Africa has an ambitious plan to grow the data centres to 700 by 2050 from below 100.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Kayobe said.
Data shows that Africa is a small player in the global data centre game, accounting for 1%.