The Advancement of Data Protection in Enhancing Business Practice in Africa
ALN Nigeria | Aluko & Oyebode
Aluko & Oyebode is a top-tier Nigerian law firm, providing world-class legal services to local and international clients
Welcome to your April edition of the Africa Bulletin.
Across the continent, the obstacles to data privacy have evolved faster than the regulatory and legal structures meant to protect that right. The accelerated digital transformation has created a need for proactivity in data protection, especially regarding personal data and data breaches. This month's bulletin focuses on advancing data protection in enhancing business practice in Africa.?
We also look at the major business stories across Africa and how they affect their region, the continent and the globe. Closely related to these stories are reports that focus on Africa within the private equity and venture capital, energy, natural resources and climate sectors.
And as ever, we have selected news stories to help you navigate today's business world, providing a global perspective on the legal issues relevant to your industry.
We are ALN. One region, One vision, One ALN.
Top Story
Across the world, the obstacles to data privacy have evolved faster than the regulatory and legal structures meant to protect that right. Many businesses in Africa have been victims of data breaches in the past, resulting in significant financial losses and reputational damage.
By implementing data protection laws, businesses can take proactive measures to prevent data breaches and ensure they are adequately protected from cyber threats and other data acquisition breaches. According to the Tony Blair Institute, 33 African countries (60% of the continent), have implemented data protection legislation as of December 2023, up from 20 countries (36% of the region) five years ago. Data protection regulations are critical for...Read more .
Stories that Matter
Africa | AfCFTA Secretariat and Afreximbank Sign AfCFTA Adjustment Fund Host Country Agreement with Rwanda?- The AfCFTA Secretariat and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), recently in Kigali, Rwanda, signed the Host Country Agreement for the AfCFTA Adjustment Fund with...Read more .
Africa | Major Green Hydrogen Projects Underway in Africa in 2023?- Africa is well equipped to develop large-scale green hydrogen projects owing to the continent’s significant renewable energy potential and high quantity of platinum group metals (PGM) – South Africa alone holds approximately 90%...Read more .
Africa | Africa Receives USD 7 Billion Boost to Promote Climate Resilience and Mitigation?- United States Vice President Kamala Harris announced USD 7 billion in private and government financing across 27 programmes to promote climate resilience and mitigation across Africa. The announcement...Read more .
East / Southern Africa | COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Ministers Adopt Legal Instruments for TFTA?- The Council of Ministers of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have...Read more .
Kenya | The Government and the World Bank Group Partner to Boost the Digital Economy?- The World Bank Group Board of Directors approved USD 390 million in financing for the first phase of a programme to expand access to high-speed internet, improve the quality and delivery of education...Read more .
Morocco | Country is Home to Africa’s Fifth Largest Private Wealth?- Morocco ranks fifth in Africa on a list of countries with the largest volume of private wealth, according to a report from consultancy firm Henley & Partners. South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, and Kenya ranked ahead of...Read more .
Tanzania / Burundi | East Africa’s Cross-Border Electric Trains Set to Speed Up Intra-African Trade?- Tanzania and Burundi have floated a tender for designing and constructing an electrified railway that will initially connect the two countries and pass through the Democratic Republic of the Congo...Read more .
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Zimbabwe | 1,000 MW Floating Solar Plant on the Cards for Zimbabwe?- Renewables firm China Energy Engineering Corp (China Energy) has submitted a proposal to Zimbabwe’s state utility, Zimbabwe Power Company, as well as a private consortium to construct a 1,000-megawatt floating solar...Read more .
Reports
World Bank | Africa’s Resource Future: Harnessing Natural Resources for Economic Transformation during the Low-Carbon Transition
This book examines the role of natural resource wealth in driving Africa’s economic transformation and the implications of the low-carbon transition for resource-rich economies. Resource wealth remains central to most Sub-Saharan African economies, and significant untapped potential exists. Subsoil assets are key sources of government revenues, export earnings, and development potential in most countries in the African region. Despite large reserves, success in converting subsoil wealth into aboveground sustainable prosperity has been limited. Finding ways to more effectively harness natural resource wealth to drive economic transformation will be central to Africa’s economic future. Recent estimates suggest that 80 percent of the world’s proven fossil fuel reserves must remain underground to meet the Paris targets, and much of these stranded reserves may be in Africa.
The Africa Private Capital Association | Towards a Prosperous Africa
Over the past two years, the world has been confronted with not only recovering from a global pandemic but also economic and political disruptions, which impacted global investors, the businesses they support, and the societies and economies that depend on them. Despite these headwinds, Africa’s private capital industry has remained resilient and experienced pockets of growth. 2021 was a record-breaking year for early-stage deal activity, which continued into the first half of 2022. Despite the accomplishments AVCA has celebrated as an industry, the continent’s private capital ecosystem continues to navigate its own complex challenges, which is unsurprising for a nascent but growing industry. From fund consolidation, currency volatility, fundraising challenges, and capital controls, the perceived risks of investing in Africa increasingly seem to be at the forefront of stakeholders’ considerations. AVCA’s mission as the pan-African industry body is to champion private investment in Africa, and to deliver on this mandate, it is vital for the Association to be adaptable.
World Bank | Financing Energy Transitions in the Power Sector
The Scaling Up to Phase Down approach is a contribution by the World Bank to the ongoing debate on how to accelerate the energy transition in low- and middle-income countries (LICs and MICs)—as called for by the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change—while simultaneously widening access to the reliable and affordable energy that underpins countries’ development goals. The approach is intended to bridge the challenges facing World Bank clients seeking to transition their power sectors and the development partners supporting their efforts. The energy transition is the process of shifting the global energy system away from the consumption of fossil fuels and toward low-carbon technologies in order to support international goals of limiting climate change. In the next decade, much of this transition will first occur in the power sector because solutions using newer technologies have the potential to become cost-competitive with appropriate interventions and because the power sector is a powerful pathway for decarbonising other sectors—most notably transport, buildings, and industry.
Africa Development Bank Group | Climate Change and Green Growth Strategic Framework
Climate change threatens sustainable development in Africa, particularly among poor and highly vulnerable countries which have contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions. The African Development Bank Group (hereafter the “Bank” or “AfDB”) has had a long-standing commitment to action on climate change and green growth to ensure that development across the continent brings about growth that is not only economically empowering but also decarbonised, climate-friendly, environmentally sustainable, and socially inclusive. As a manifestation of this commitment, the Bank has developed its first-ever Climate Change and Green Growth Strategic Framework – comprising of a policy (open-ended, with no pre-determined terminal date), a strategy that covers 2021–2030, and this action plan for the period 2021–2025. The framework builds on the Bank’s comparative advantage and commitment to building on its accomplishments and lessons learnt during its Second Climate Change Action Plan 2016–2020, now extended to 2021. Focus is, therefore, on four key pillars and four key areas of special emphasis. These pillars are Adaptation, Mitigation, Finance and green growth.