African citizens must be more than passive recipients of foreign technology — or of governance frameworks that shape it. Their voices, priorities and lived experiences must drive the agenda from the outset. Across the continent, digital transformation is accelerating on several fronts: connectivity is surging, mobile economies are scaling and a youthful, digitally fluent population is reshaping Africa’s future. As national, regional and global entities grapple with how to govern this fast-evolving space, the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and Afrobarometer are centring on the most consequential constituency in that conversation: African citizens themselves.
As a policy research institution, CIGI’s goal is to move the conversation from viewing Africa as a consumer of global technologies to recognizing the continent as a co-designer and innovator in the global tech governance architecture. Continental digital and governance initiatives and frameworks abound, including the Malabo Convention, the African Continental Free Trade Area and subsequent Digital Trade Protocol, the African Union Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy and Smart Africa, numerous domestic efforts — for example, in Ghana and Kenya — and key events, such as South Africa’s Presidency of the G20, where digital transformation was a major focal point.
This opportunity builds among key questions: What does tech governance look like when underpinned by African political philosophy? How can African digital governance take a decolonial approach? What is the relationship between tech diplomacy and sovereignty, especially in a period of geopolitical strategic behaviour? How can momentum be sustained in a watershed moment, even with growing investment gaps due to cuts in foreign assistance?
In this regard, Afrobarometer emerges as a critical partner. Afrobarometer is the world’s leading source of high-quality data on what Africans are thinking — supporting African development anchored in the realities and aspirations of its people. With a network of 40-plus national partners responsible for data collection, analysis and in-country dissemination of findings, Afrobarometer conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, the economy, society and — most recently — digital transformation. Its mission: to make citizen voices a key pillar of African policy and decision making.
The data collected by Afrobarometer since 2024 has revealed how African publics are navigating, experiencing and engaging with new technologies and digital spaces. At the same time, it signals what governance must address to keep pace with this growth. Below are some of its most significant findings.
Platforms and Access to the Internet
Among adults with internet connectivity, a clear majority (84 percent) say they access the internet daily or a few times a week, with mobile phones serving as the primary gateway to online content. Young Africans (aged 18–35) are frequent internet users (85 percent), far more so than those over 55 (74 percent). Africa is clearly leapfrogging fixed broadband: a mobile-first, youth-led user base means that digital services, financial inclusion tools, civic engagement channels and public sector platforms need to be mobile phone–friendly to reach the population at scale and translate connectivity into real economic and social dividends.
Digital Security and Online Harms
As internet adoption accelerates across the continent, so too does public concern about online safety and security, turning a once technical issue into a governance challenge. Across seven countries that Afrobarometer surveyed in late 2024, more than half (52 percent) of internet users expressed concern about the security of their personal information online, and a large majority (81 percent) believe mobile phones are more vulnerable to harmful online activity than are computers or other devices. This matters acutely because the continent’s digital economy, including especially mobile money and banking transactions, is almost entirely mobile-first. If users are concerned about the vulnerability of the very devices they use for financial transactions and other digital services, adoption of fintech, e-commerce and e-government could stall. Closing this trust gap through strong data protection laws and visible platform safeguards is a critical precondition for Africa’s digital transformation.
Digital Privacy and Risks
Digital privacy literacy remains thin across the continent, with only about a third of (32 percent) of respondents considering themselves “somewhat” (22 percent) or “very” (10 percent) familiar with the tools and skills needed to protect their personal information online, underscoring an urgent need for public education and platform-level safeguards. The data does reveal one bright spot: 72 percent of respondents report using strong passwords to protect their online accounts, signalling that basic cyber hygiene is taking root, even if a handful of countries, most notably Benin (52 percent), still lag well behind the curve. But the picture weakens quickly beyond the basics. Only one in three users (33 percent) report using two-factor authentication, 30 percent use antivirus software and barely one in five (21 percent) use virtual private networks, leaving most Africans dependent on a single line of defence — strong passwords.
Taken together, these findings paint a clear portrait of where African citizens stand. As the technology governance community rightfully focuses on Africa as a critical forum, Afrobarometer’s data will be an indispensable evidence base for CIGI and others to support African-led governance of emerging digital and technological tools, grounding policy recommendations and choices in the lived experiences, concerns and priorities of the people. As the policy agenda gets written, African citizens must take centre stage.