Cross-border Data Flows and Digital Trade Integration in Africa: Legal Interoperabiliy and Domestic Alignment Under the AfCFTA

Abstract

The governance of cross-border data flows has become a key legal issue for digital trade integration in Africa. This is evident in the adoption of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Digital Trade Protocol and its Annex on Cross-Border Data Transfers. This thesis examines how the governance framework for cross-border data flow under the Protocol and its annex interact with domestic cross-border data flow governance. Using a comparative legal approach, the thesis studies Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa as examples of domestic regulatory models in Africa. It develops a five-dimensional framework to evaluate how well domestic policies in each of these countries align with AfCFTA cross-border data flow obligations. It examines the legal foundations, regulatory scope, institutional mechanisms, rights and digital protections, and socio-economic and technical contexts. The AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol and the Cross-Border Data Transfers Annex are seen as setting a general obligation to allow cross-border data transfers for digital trade, with specific treaty-based conditions and exceptions. The thesis argues that the observed regulatory differences mainly show variations in institutional capacity, regulatory methods, and implementation order rather than deep legal conflicts. It proposes treaty-derived thresholds to separate legally significant incompatibility from acceptable regulatory differences. The thesis redefines digital trade integration under the AfCFTA through the lens of legal compatibility rather than requiring Uniform harmonization.