The African Union’s Digital Economy Blueprint: Is Anyone Following It?

Six years into a ten-year plan, the African Union’s Digital Transformation Strategy has become one of the most cited documents in African technology policy, and one of the hardest to measure. Endorsed by heads of state in 2020, the strategy aims to build a Digital Single Market across Africa by 2030. It is the closest thing the continent has to a shared blueprint for its digital economy.

African officials now say the question has changed. It is no longer whether governments will adopt strategies, but whether they will deliver on them. At a ministerial session in Libreville on 29 October, AU Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy Lerato Mataboge urged ministers to focus on implementation, measurable targets and monitoring. She added that the meeting’s success would be judged by decisions implemented, not by “the number of documents we adopt.”

A framework, not a treaty

The strategy sets direction rather than binding obligations. Its priorities, as restated in Libreville, include affordable connectivity, cybersecurity, interoperable digital identity, data governance, digital skills and African AI capability. Whether any of this happens depends on what individual governments write into national law and budgets.

On that measure, the policy record is encouraging. A review by the research group DigitA found that 2025 brought progress on fintech regulation, start-up laws, data protection and digital trade. Sixteen countries also launched national AI strategies. DigitA’s managing partner, Oswald Guobadia, said many of the strategy’s central ideas are already embedded in national policies. The review’s main finding was that 2026 should be the year governments move from planning to operating digital identity, payment and cross-border data systems.

That distinction matters. Many countries now have the paperwork, and fewer have working systems.

Digital trade is the harder test

The clearest measure of follow-through is the AfCFTA Protocol on Digital Trade. The AU Assembly adopted it in February 2024. It has since been supplemented by eight annexes covering areas such as cross-border data transfers, digital identities, digital payments and emerging technologies. One annex creates an adequacy-based system for moving data between participating countries. The protocol enters into force 30 days after the 22nd state deposits its instrument of ratification.

Nigeria has moved early. It approved ratification in November 2025, and the Guardian reported that this made it the first state party to ratify. Other countries are still working through domestic processes. In October, South Africa’s Parliament was considering its own ratification after Cabinet approval, according to a briefing to the Select Committee on Economic Development and Trade. In February, the AU Assembly urged members to complete ratification of the AfCFTA protocols, digital trade included, by the end of 2026.

When the AfCFTA Secretariat closed its second Digital Trade Forum in Lagos in July, accelerating ratification and domestication was the first of its Eight Calls to Action. The Secretariat estimates Africa’s digital economy at about $180 billion today and projects it could approach $712 billion by 2050. It pointed to work already under way, including a Google-backed programme to train 7,500 small businesses across 19 countries and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, which is meant to cut the cost of intra-African payments.

For Nigerian businesses, the protocol matters because it would make data and payment rules more predictable across borders. Until enough countries ratify it, firms selling across the continent still deal with separate national regimes.

Coordination remains the weak point

Continental institutions have also acknowledged where the problem lies. In October 2025, member states met in Maseru to validate a draft assessment of how the strategy has been implemented. Moses Bayingana, the AU Commission’s director of infrastructure and energy, said most members have developed ICT policies. He also warned that weak coordination among continental institutions was a concern that “must be addressed immediately.”

Lesotho’s own account at the same meeting shows how infrastructure and use can diverge. Its officials said 96 percent of the country is covered by terrestrial networks, with satellite reaching the rest. They also said the affordability of devices and data remained a key challenge. Coverage alone has not produced the inclusive digital economy the strategy describes.

What the record shows

The honest answer to the headline is partial. Governments are writing the strategy’s themes into national policy, and continental instruments such as the Digital Trade Protocol and its annexes now exist in detail. Nigeria has acted early on ratification, and several pilot programmes are running.

What remains thin is the evidence that these commitments are adding up to a single digital market. The Digital Trade Protocol was still awaiting enough ratifications to take effect when the AfCFTA Secretariat set out its priorities in July. Continental coordination is, by the AU’s own account, uneven. With four years left on the strategy’s clock, the next test is whether the end-2026 ratification deadline is met and whether member states can show results in identity, payments and data flows that businesses can use.