At the Internet Governance Forum 2025 in Lillestrøm, Norway, Africa’s digital ambitions took center stage and so did its long-standing frustrations. While other continents debate quantum regulation and AI ethics, African leaders are still fighting for consistent electricity, internet access below $5 a gigabyte, and policy agreements that don’t evaporate once the summit ends. African digital transformation challenges are real, and unfortunately here to stay. Question is until when?!
The African Union’s Open Forum this year was more candid than usual. No one sugarcoated the reality. From senior officials at the African Union Commission and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) to civil society advocates and private sector participants, the message was strong: we’ve heard the declarations, we’ve seen the frameworks, and we’ve nodded at the roadmaps. What’s missing is execution.
5 Key Takeaways
1. Africa’s Digital Frustrations Are No Longer Whispers: At IGF 2025, African leaders dropped the diplomatic niceties and called things as they are. While the rest of the world debates AI guardrails, much of Africa is still battling for affordable data, consistent electricity, and policy agreements that actually survive beyond the summit applause.
2. Internet Coverage Exists, But Access Is Still a Luxury: UNECA’s Dr. Maktar Sek pointed out that just 38% of Africans are online, and even those who are often can’t afford to stay connected. Infrastructure may be visible, but without affordability, energy, and cross-border cooperation, it’s little more than a mirage.
3. Declarations Are Plenty, But Action Is Scarce: From the Dar es Salaam Declaration to the stalled Malabo Convention, there’s no shortage of digital pledges. But when only 17 of 54 countries commit to cybersecurity cooperation, the bigger issue isn’t drafting policy, it’s the political will to implement it.
4. Local Solutions Must Come With Institutional Teeth: Calls for youth engagement and local innovation echoed throughout the forum, but delegates also demanded structure. The African IGF Secretariat was called out for being too weak to drive results. The message was simple: stop recommending and start delivering.
5. Africa Doesn’t Need More Hope, It Needs Wires, Servers, and Working Laws: The fatigue is real. Leaders want contracts, not concepts. Offline functionality, not futuristic visions. And public services that function, not pilot programs. The clock is ticking—and everyone in the room knew it.
African Digital Transformation Challenges: Connectivity Not the Biggest Problem
Only 38% of Africans have internet access. That figure, delivered by Dr. Maktar Sek of UNECA, stunned no one. What’s more telling is how fragmented that access is, geographically, economically, and politically. Even where signal bars appear on phones, the costs are crippling. Coverage may exist, but connectivity, real, usable access, does not.
Dr. Sek rattled off a list of initiatives that should, in theory, be pushing the continent forward: an ICT tax calculator, a database of African AI projects, and support for digital ID systems in places like Mozambique and Ethiopia. All important, no doubt. But if the lights are out, the networks are down, and the payment systems don’t talk to each other across borders, who benefits?
Too Many Policies, Not Enough Policy
There is no shortage of declarations in African digital governance. In fact, there may be too many. The Dar es Salaam Declaration, adopted at the African IGF in Tanzania, reads like a greatest-hits compilation of Africa’s digital struggles: infrastructure bottlenecks, affordability gaps, cybersecurity concerns, and a stark need for more localised content.
The real concern, however, is that only 17 out of 54 African countries have ratified the Malabo Convention on cybersecurity. That’s a big red flag. Countries agree in principle that they need cooperation and common rules. But when it comes time to sign binding agreements, too many heads of state look the other way.
At the Open Forum, several attendees proposed a committee to figure out why countries aren’t ratifying the Malabo Convention and to draft new laws that better reflect the current digital threats. It was a constructive idea. But one speaker from civil society summed up the mood perfectly: “We don’t need more committees. We need consequences.”
African Digital Transformation Challenges: Governance Needs Grit, Not Gloss
The private sector doesn’t need more workshops or frameworks. It needs functioning systems. At RegTech, we’ve worked in countries where a single server crash can freeze tax collection for days. In places where digital identity is still a paper document with a photo stapled to it, we’ve built secure platforms that work offline when the internet fails. That’s not innovation for headlines. But, do you know what? It truly works. These solutions are real and we are here to implement them for you, in a manner that will suit your country’s social and economical context!
Digital governance, especially across Africa, cannot be an academic exercise. It must be rooted in what works on the ground. And sometimes, what works isn’t sleek. It’s reliable. It’s accessible. It doesn’t assume a citywide fiber network or a 24/7 energy grid. Instead, it starts from the reality of what people don’t have and builds from there.
We believe the private sector has a duty here, not just to pitch solutions, but to listen, adapt, and embed into the public service fabric. We’re not selling silver bullets. We’re building scaffolding. And we’re doing it with local engineers, not outside contractors with PowerPoints.
Youth, Yes. But Also Institutions.
Everyone loves to mention African youth, just not always in the budget line. At the Open Forum, speaker after speaker called for youth engagement, coding academies, and funding for grassroots innovation. But they also asked a more practical question: Who’s going to coordinate all this?
The African IGF Secretariat was cited repeatedly as being under-resourced and underpowered. It’s time, several argued, to shift from forums that produce “recommendations” to institutions that deliver results. If there’s a Secretariat, give it teeth, and if there are resolutions, make them binding. If we keep calling it “aspiration,” we’ll never call it “achievement.”
African Digital Transformation Challenges: A Spreadsheet of Excuses
Let’s put it plainly: African digital development is not being held back by a lack of talent. Nor is it short on good ideas. What it lacks is what one speaker called “follow-through muscles.” Too often, the moment the lights dim at a summit, so does the will to act.
The continent is splintered by telecom rules that change at every border. Digital payments don’t sync. Cloud infrastructure is either too expensive or too foreign. And policy harmonization, once the holy grail of a united African digital market, remains more slogan than substance.
But perhaps the most damaging thing isn’t technical. It’s psychological. It’s the fatigue of being told that progress is coming, that the next plan will fix it, that the next election might usher in a minister who “gets it.” Africa doesn’t need another wave of optimism. It needs contracts, fiber cable, and yes, working electricity.
The Clock Is Ticking
The final minutes of the African Union’s Open Forum were telling. Speakers spoke faster. Notes were abandoned. The formalities gave way to urgency. One delegate from West Africa said it bluntly: “We are being left behind, and we know it.”
No one walked away believing that Lillestrøm would suddenly become the birthplace of a digital renaissance. But there was, perhaps, a growing consensus that the usual rhythm, meeting, declaration, delay, has run its course.
African countries are hungry for contracts that lead to working systems, not just shiny demos. Hungry for laws that can be enforced. Hungry for solutions that function offline as well, because that’s still how most of the continent lives. And above all, hungry for a digital Africa built not by hopeful mantras, but by functional public services.
We are here to help governments, financial institutions, and businesses to effectively comply with growing regulatory requirements through technology.
