As governments across the continent tighten rules on how information is stored and used, Africa is being pushed to decide whether its future digital wealth will remain onshore or flow overseas. That debate takes centre stage in Lagos on September 18, 2025, when more than 300 leaders from business, government, and tech assemble for the Africa Data Sovereignty Conference.
The gathering, convened by Olla Systems in collaboration with Africa Hyperscalers, will tackle pressing questions of data localization, infrastructure capacity, and digital trust. For countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, and the DRC, which are already rolling out strict domiciliation requirements, the outcomes of such conversations could reshape how banks, telecom operators, and public institutions handle sensitive data.
Conference convener and Olla Systems CEO Olusola Adenuga stressed that the issue is about far more than compliance:
“Data sovereignty means control over value and opportunity. Other regions retain most of their information locally; Africa must stop exporting its digital assets and start building the infrastructure to power its own growth.”
With regulators like the CBN and NITDA already enforcing migration from global clouds to homegrown, regulation-compliant platforms, the Lagos summit signals a decisive moment: Africa is no longer asking if it should own its data—it’s asking how fast it can build the systems to make that possible.
