As Africa’s digital economy hurtles toward a cloud-first future, a new kind of infrastructure challenge is emerging – where data lives, who controls it, and how enterprises comply with fast-evolving national policies.
 
On September 18, 2025, industry leaders, regulators, and enterprise executives will converge on Lagos for the Africa Data Sovereignty Conference, a high-stakes summit on data localization, infrastructure readiness, and the next frontier of digital trust.

Convened by Olla Systems, a provider of cloud and IT infrastructure solutions, in partnership with Africa Hyperscalers, a digital infrastructure intelligence platform, the conference is expected to attract over 300 decision-makers from enterprise organizations, high-growth startups, and government institutions. It comes at a pivotal time, as countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ghana advance data domiciliation mandates that require regulated institutions to store and process data within national borders.

“Data sovereignty is not just about where data resides; it is also about who controls it, who benefits from it, and how it powers national development,” said Chief Executive Officer of Olla Systems and conference convener, Olusola Adenuga, adding,  “Other regions retain over 80 per cent of their data onshore. Africa must break its digital dependence and build sovereign infrastructure that keeps our data, value, and opportunity within the continent.”

Over the past few years, African national regulators such as the Central Bank (CBN) and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) have rolled out increasingly firm directives aimed at data sovereignty. Financial institutions, telecom operators, and public sector agencies are under pressure to migrate workloads from global clouds to locally hosted, regulation-compliant platforms.