• West and Central African nations target 40% local hosting of government-critical data by 2028.
• Regional Internet exchanges and harmonized cybersecurity frameworks are planned to support data sovereignty.
• At least 50% of citizens are expected to have secure digital identities by 2028.

West and Central African countries have agreed to repatriate their sensitive data, targeting local hosting for 40% of critical datasets by 2028. Officials framed this move as essential to establishing digital sovereignty against foreign tech giants.

Last week, governments adopted the Cotonou Declaration, which calls for the relocation of 40% of key government data from European and U.S.-based servers to regional data centers. The World Bank reports that Africa currently accounts for less than 1% of global storage and computing capacity, insufficient to support growing digital identities, social registries, and online public services.

The declaration also outlines plans to deploy regional Internet exchange points to secure African network traffic. Countries will adopt harmonized frameworks for cybersecurity, data protection, and AI governance, prerequisites for cross-border public data hosting. Additionally, three regional centers of excellence in AI are slated to be operational by 2028.

Sangbu Kim, World Bank Vice President for Digital Development, said, “Eighty-five percent of global computing capacity is concentrated in high-income countries.”

Although several countries already operate public and private data centers, utilization remains low. A large share of public data—including tax, health, identity, and market records—still resides in foreign clouds. Meanwhile, companies, banks, and fintechs continue to favor their own servers or off-continent data centers.

Local demand remains limited, as high-computation applications like AI, analytics, e-government, EdTech, and HealthTech struggle to gain traction. Market actors have yet to fully recognize the benefits of local cloud hosting. Other challenges include a lack of regional harmonization, high energy costs, and data centers that are sometimes uncertified or little-known. The result: existing infrastructure remains underused due to the absence of an integrated market capable of fully leveraging it.

The declaration proposes a regional financing mechanism to support data infrastructure, with a technical roadmap expected in the coming months. Rapid growth in public data—including digital identity, e-government services, health, and payment systems—reinforces the urgency of reliable, secure local infrastructure. The declaration also sets a goal for at least 50% of citizens to have secure digital identities by 2028, further increasing the volume of sensitive data requiring local hosting.

This article was initially published in French by Fiacre E. Kakpo

Adapted in English by Ange Jason Quenum