United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCA) has partnered with Open Access Data Centres (OADC) to strengthen data sovereignty and expand digital infrastructure across the continent.
The collaboration will focus on developing local data centre capacity, enabling African countries to store, process, and manage data within their own borders. Strengthening in-country infrastructure is seen as critical to improving data security, regulatory compliance, and digital independence.
As digital adoption accelerates across Africa, demand for reliable data centre infrastructure is rising, driven by cloud services, enterprise applications, and government digitisation initiatives. However, limited local capacity has historically forced reliance on offshore data hosting.
The UCA–OADC partnership aims to address this gap by supporting scalable, locally hosted infrastructure that can meet growing demand while aligning with national data governance policies.
The initiative also reflects increasing emphasis on data sovereignty as a strategic priority, with governments seeking greater control over digital assets and infrastructure.
Editor’s Note:
Data sovereignty is becoming a central theme in Africa’s digital strategy. Expanding local data centre capacity will be key to reducing external dependency and enabling sustainable digital ecosystem growth.
