Transborder flow of personal data (TDF) in Africa: Stocktaking the ills and gains of a divergently regulated business mechanism

Technology-based transactions are inseparable from the routine exchange of data. These exchanges may not pose privacy problems until the movement takes extra-territorial turns thereby facing multiple levels of cross-border regulations. In the 80 s, the frequency of transfer of personal data beyond geographical boundaries in Europe precipitated the regulation of transborder data flows (TDF) beginning with the enactment of the Organization for OECD Guidelines. In Africa, the concept of TDF is more complex than usually viewed by the stakeholders and this is partly because neither the African Union nor other regional bodies have introduced legislation on TDF. Like many concepts in data protection, TDF is bereft of a generally accepted meaning. Regardless of the uncertainty, this paper approaches TDF as the transmission of personal data from one country to another country or international entity for the purpose of processing. The paper discusses some definitions of TDF as understood under African regional and national data protection legislation. In a comparative and normative approach, the paper analyses the barriers to TDF in Africa vis a vis the European experience and then concludes with recommendations for workable TDF within and outside the continent from an African perspective beginning with the harmonization of existing regional framework.