South Africa: Options to Regulate Data Flows

South Africa is in a privileged position to become the regional hub for provision of data processing services and other innovative digital services. In order to do so, the country should promote the free flow of data, allowing local companies to extract the benefits of data created regionally. This policy briefing provides clear economic arguments to support a regime of free data flow in South Africa and shows that restrictions on movement of data have detrimental effects on productivity, innovation, access to information, investment and ultimately the growth and welfare of the country.