Data Governance Working Papers

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    The Economics of Blockchain within Africa
    (African Economic Research Consortium, 2023-02) Thegeya, Aaron
    Blockchain technology offers the potential to transform economic activity and improve living standards in Africa by overcoming information asymmetry problems, property rights and governance barriers. Blockchain innovations have the ability to boost levels of productivity and unlock capital flows to underserved sectors, in addition to leveraging the increasing returns of information as an input to production to spur economic growth. This background paper discusses the recent advances in blockchain technology within Africa, and investigates the underlying economic principles of blockchain networks, both universally and in an African context. It reviews the enabling infrastructure and supporting technology, including digital identity. Finally, it gives policy recommendations to increase the uptake of blockchain technology on the continent
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    More than Just a Policy - Day to Day Effects of Data Governance on the Data Scientist
    (African Economic Research Consortium, 2023-02) Marivate, Vukosi
    Within a short space of time, the debate about Data Governance has fallen behind the realities of data-driven industries and economies. The flow and trade of data is driven by the needs of different stakeholders and evolution of global contexts of many technologies that are seen as local. To the Data Scientist, it may seem like an exciting time that has infinite possibility and opportunity to invent the near future. The gap between Data Governance on the African continent and data practice poses a challenge that must be dealt with sooner than later. This paper looks at the intersection of Data Science practice and Data Governance, I analyze some of the recent literature to identify areas of concern and focus. Ultimately, I look at how non-technical considerations are core in bridging data governance and data science practice, borrowing from other disciplines that had a head start with these challenges. Finally, we suggest steps that can be taken by practitioners to reduce this gap between governance and practice.
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    Data; Data Governance; Data protection; Personal Data; Non-Personal Data; Open Data; Cyber-Security; Development; Africa; Malabo; AfCFTA
    (African Economic Research Consortium, 2023-02) Ndemo, Bitange; Mkalama, Ben
    Digitalization is quickly emerging as an avenue for future economic development. As a result of this, financial technology companies (FinTechs) have taken to digitalization both to understand their customers and to use data to design more productive and convenient products. Subsequently, they are credited with making financial resources increasingly available and affordable. In Africa, millions of people use a vast array of proliferating mobile platforms as transactional interfaces. Although these innovations have improved the ease of financial transactions, they are not without challenges. Due to the dynamic nature of these processes, ubiquitous challenges affecting collection, processing, quality and security of collected data continually emerge. These challenges create opportunities for financial data governance. In this paper, we explore digitalization and financial governance in Africa. We identify the current state of knowledge and explicate how this understanding has been applied on the continent. Finally, we specify existing knowledge gaps in areas that could form the basis of a future research agenda for practitioners and policy makers.
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    Data Regulation in Africa: Free Flow of Data, Open Data Regimes and Cyber Security
    (2023-02) Hlomani, Hanani; Ncube, Caroline B.
    In a broad sense, this paper seeks to address the concerns associated with data regulation on the African continent. In particular, the paper zooms in on three major aspects of data regulation that hold the reigns to the potential development of the continent. These are the free flow of data, the adoption of open data regimes, and cyber security. This will be in the general context of Africa, with a focus on regulatory instruments from the different bodies at continental and sub-regional level, and some national legislation from countries that have developed any legislative instruments that address the same concerns. Emphasis will also be paid to the strides that have been taken by the European Union, the first continental body that has taken a geographically concerted approach to comprehensive data regulation. The aim is to draw lessons from such efforts with the intention of determining an appropriate African-centred approach to data regulation, particularly in the context of increased inter-African trade as envisaged by the agreement on the African Continental Free Trade Area, and an enhanced digital economy as motivated for in the Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa (2020-2030).
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    Data Protection Legal Regime and Data Governance in Africa: An Overview
    (African Economic Research Consortium, 2023-02) Babalola, Olumide
    In its simplest sense, Data Governance refers to the overall management of (personal and non-personal) data to facilitate organizational goals. Data Protection, on the other hand, predominantly regulates the management of personal data for the overall protection of users’ privacy and other fundamental rights and freedoms. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has greatly increased the processing of personal data for business and social purposes in Africa, hence the imminent need to regulate dealings with such personal information for undesirable purpose(s) by setting up relevant legal frameworks to address the unfavourable effects on humans, whose personal information are utilized for sundry purposes. This research paper analyses the regional legal framework around data protection in Africa in the light of their salient provisions, adequacy, efficiency, and enforceability in relation to data governance on the continent. The paper makes some juxtaposition with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation in relation to its remote or immediate impact on the African legislation on data protection. The research exposes the inadequacies of the data protection legal framework and the non-existent mechanism for cross border transfers of personal data, which ought to be regulated by the existing Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) in Africa. The paper then concludes with some incentives for data protection within the context of data governance on the continent.