Digital economy blueprint

9.2 CREATING A REGULATORY FRAMEWORK 

FOR MORE INVESTMENT AND INNOVATION

The vision of a digital regulatory policy must take 

cognizance of the fact that digitization is a business 

project, and accordingly, room must be provided for 

the development of enterprising investments, product 

innovation and new data-based services. At the same 

time, there is a need to create a reliable and objective 

framework relating to issues such as liability regula-

tions and copyright law as well as fair competition. 

All digital business models should be part of open 

and innovative competition. This requires the need to 

eliminate isolated solutions, privileges, discrimina-

tion and “lock-in” practices. A requirement to push 

the process of creating binding norms and standards 

becomes imperative. A maximum degree of market 

and product transparency creates the base for freedom 

of choice for business customers and private consum-

ers, who should be able to make informed and inde-

pendent choices.

The Internet, sometimes termed the network of net-

works, requires a level playing field. But isolated reg-

ulatory or policy solutions based on limited national 

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9.0  IMPLEMENTING THE DIGITAL ECONOMY

and regional interests should be avoided as much as 

is possible. Examples such as the AU Convention on 

Cyber Security and European General Data Protec-

tion Regulation serve as a good point of reference..

In Kenya’s case,  there is an ongoing discussion on 

Personal Data protection, through the ongoing Priva-

cy and Data Protection Bill that aims to provide assur-

ances and guarantees to our citizens on this important 

theme. As a region, we can adopt European General 

Data Protection Regulations model to create our own 

regulations going forward. We want to build on this 

approach. If we are to have a successful African Dig-

ital Single Market (DSM), it must serve not only con-

sumer interests, but also those of the manufacturers, 

small and large.