Africa’s Digital Sovereignty Trap: The Data Center Dilemma

As Africa’s digital economy accelerates, governments across the continent are racing to attract investment in data centers, the infrastructure responsible for storing and processing the data behind everything from e-commerce to artificial intelligence. Many policymakers face what appears to be a stark choice: accept foreign investment and risk digital dependency, or assert sovereignty and risk deterring capital. But this binary is misleading. The continent’s data center market, projected to reach $9.15 billion by 2029, presents an opportunity to achieve both economic growth and digital self-determination—if national governments can move beyond fragmented approaches and pursue more coordinated regional strategies.

The rapid growth of data centers in Africa has turned infrastructure planning into a high‑stakes sovereignty issue.  As of mid-2025, South Africa hosts 56 facilities, followed by Kenya with 19 and Nigeria with 17. The continent as a whole comprises 223 data centers across 38 countries. Decisions about where data is stored, who owns infrastructure, and which regulations apply have become flashpoints in debates over digital sovereignty and economic justice. To avoid repeating patterns of dependency, African governments must stop treating sovereignty and growth as opposing goals and instead coordinate regionally to strengthen their collective leverage with international investors.

Some African governments are proactively building national data centers to reduce their reliance on global tech giants and gain control over sensitive national data. This pushback against digital colonialism—where external firms harvest and monetize African data with limited oversight—reflects mounting concern about surveillance, national security, and economic extraction. A notable example is Kenya’s High Court suspension of Worldcoin’s biometric campaign in August 2023, followed by a ruling that required the deletion of all collected iris scans within seven days and halted further biometric processing due to violations of Kenya’s Data Protection Act and lack of proper consent or impact assessment.

Yet many national strategies continue to frame digital sovereignty and economic growth as conflicting objectives. The simple arithmetic of capital concentration in the global tech market reveals why: A handful of firms dominate investment flows, dictate infrastructure standards, and set the terms of engagement, leaving individual governments with little leverage to shape the rules on their own.

Currently, global tech giants such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle, Alibaba, and Huawei own or operate the majority of the world’s cloud and data center infrastructure. The top three providers alone—Amazon, Microsoft, and Google—account for more than 60 percent of global cloud spending, and together with Oracle, Alibaba, and Huawei, they collectively control over 70 percent of the market. This level of market concentration makes it difficult for developing countries to negotiate equitable terms when hyperscaling data center projects.

The scramble by global powers to shape Africa’s digital future has turned data centers into strategic assets in a broader geopolitical contest. China, largely through Huawei, has emerged as a leading infrastructure provider, offering turnkey packages for data centers and fiber optic cables backed by state financing and rapid deployment timelines. The United States and its allies, meanwhile, promote their own cloud ecosystems through companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Oracle, often emphasizing open standards and data security as a counterpoint to Chinese influence.

This global competition creates short-term opportunities for African governments, but it also reinforces a risky pattern: individual countries negotiating alone with powerful multinationals. These one-on-one deals often enable regulatory arbitrage, as companies exploit differences in national laws to avoid oversight, reduce tax exposure, or bypass privacy protections. Fragmented approaches weaken Africa’s collective bargaining power and make it harder to secure equitable terms for data infrastructure investment—especially given that American-based cloud providers already command a dominant share of the global market.

Rather than accept this imbalance, African governments can leverage the continent’s expanding digital markets to demand more from foreign investors. The African Union’s Data Policy Framework offers a blueprint for doing so. By defining data as a strategic asset essential to innovation, inclusion, and digital transformation, the framework promotes policies that neither isolate nor surrender control. Governments advocating for in-country data storage can utilize this foundation to foster local digital ecosystems, develop skilled workforces, and establish clear terms for international participation without compromising sovereignty or stifling growth.

The key lies in intelligent localization policies that attract rather than deter investment. When governments require sensitive data storage to be locally maintained while maintaining integration with global digital trade, they create market opportunities for international partners operating under African rules. This approach transforms data sovereignty from a defensive posture into an economic development strategy, allowing countries to capture digital value while protecting citizen rights and national security.

Africa’s fragmented digital landscape leaves individual countries vulnerable to geopolitical pressure from global powers. The choice between aligning with the United States or China often plays out in one-off infrastructure deals that prioritize short-term gains over long-term strategic autonomy. Regional coordination offers a stronger alternative. The African Union (AU) Digital Transformation Strategy (2020–2030) and AI Strategy (2024) both lay out clear roadmaps for building collective digital sovereignty by promoting continent-wide data governance and local infrastructure development.

Both frameworks emphasize the importance of in-country and regional data centers, not only for sovereignty and security, but also for lowering latency, improving resilience, and ensuring that African data is processed, stored, and managed within the continent. Realizing these goals, however, requires more than high-level commitments. Policy harmonization must account for national differences in digital maturity and ensure that infrastructures are interoperable, cybersecurity protocols are aligned, and data protection laws support seamless cross-border exchange.

When African governments coordinate their approaches, they create bargaining power that no single country can achieve on its own. This unlocks the potential to negotiate stronger terms with global tech providers while maintaining control over critical infrastructure and the data it generates. Delivering on this vision will take political will, technical expertise, and sustained collaboration across governments, regulators, and regional institutions. But the payoff is significant: a unified digital strategy that strengthens Africa’s negotiating position, supports local innovation, and ensures that the economic value of its data remains on the continent.

No strategy for digital sovereignty or regional integration can succeed without confronting Africa’s infrastructure challenges. Access to power, clean water, and high-speed internet is shaping Africa’s digital economy as much as any regulation or investment deal. These constraints decide where digital infrastructure gets built and who benefits from it.

Nigeria offers a clear example of the barriers. The country’s 17 data centers—14 of which are clustered in the capital, Lagos—already require around 137 MW of power capacity in 2025. Yet Nigeria’s power grid is notoriously unreliable, providing just four hours of power per day on average, forcing data center operators to depend on diesel generators. These backup systems significantly raise operational costs and emit substantial carbon pollution. As a result, data centers are almost exclusively located in urban hubs with relatively stronger—and even then inconsistent—power and connectivity.

Water scarcity adds another layer of complexity. Cooling systems in data centers consume large volumes of water to maintain safe operating temperatures. In regions already suffering from drought and competing agricultural demands, securing the necessary supply can spark public opposition and limit project feasibility.

Meanwhile, Kenya is building a more sustainable model. Its Naivasha geothermal zone—a region supplying nearly half of the country’s power—will host a planned 100 MW green data center by Microsoft and G42, backed by a $1 billion investment. Further, Kenya’s grid is already over 60 percent renewable, including geothermal, solar, wind, and hydroelectric sources, positioning it to support data centers with lower emissions and greater stability.

Kenya has also leveraged large-scale wind farms, such as the Lake Turkana (310 MW) and Kipeto (102 MW) projects, to diversify its energy mix and stabilize the grid. Public-private partnerships in these projects showcase how strategic infrastructure investment can underpin technological ambitions.

Yet many African countries remain at a crossroads. They continue to rely on fragmented power sectors, dominated by state utilities, private producers, and shifting regulations. Unless they see energy and water not as afterthoughts but as core components of digital sovereignty, fragmented localization policies and AU-level coordination will falter.

How countries build power systems, manage water, and extend connectivity will determine whether data centers remain confined to urban enclaves or become the backbone of inclusive growth. It is a political project that will determine whether Africa’s digital future is equitable, sustainable, and truly sovereign.

Data centers are fast becoming the backbone of Africa’s digital economy. But the choices governments make now will determine whether this infrastructure empowers the continent—or reinforces old patterns of dependency under new terms. The expansion of digital infrastructure is not just about bandwidth and storage. It reflects deeper questions about control, accountability, and long-term economic value.

Today, foreign tech firms still dominate the data center landscape, often shaping investment terms and technical standards to their advantage. Fragmented national strategies make this easier, allowing companies to exploit uneven regulations and avoid scrutiny. At the same time, weak infrastructure continues to concentrate benefits in a few urban hubs, leaving rural and underserved communities behind.

There is no single fix. But African governments can change course by linking smart localization policies with stronger regional coordination. National laws that require in-country data storage and fair competition must be matched with continent-wide efforts to harmonize standards, align cybersecurity protocols, and negotiate from a position of strength.

This will take more than policy statements. It will require sustained political commitment, regional collaboration, and investment in the foundational systems—energy, water, and connectivity—that make digital sovereignty possible. If leaders act now, the current wave of investment can lay the groundwork for a more equitable digital future, one in which Africa retains control over the infrastructure that will define the next phase of its development.