Assessing how the East African Community (EAC) can unlock the economic value of cross-border data flows

Ahead of the September 2026 AmCham Business Summit, the American Chamber of Commerce in Kenya commissioned Genesis Analytics to strengthen the private sector’s contribution to an ongoing East African Community (EAC) policy process to develop a harmonised regional framework for cross-border data flows. 

AmCham members wanted to demonstrate the economic importance of cross-border data flows to the region, while bringing evidence on the practical costs that fragmented national regulations impose on businesses operating across EAC markets.

Genesis undertook a rapid economic and policy study combining desktop research, trade and economic data, regional and international regulatory evidence, and engagement with digitally enabled businesses whose operations are highly reliant on the ability to move data across borders. 

Through these consultations, Genesis identified how divergent transfer requirements, localisation rules and regulatory processes affect firms in practice, including through higher compliance and infrastructure costs, duplicated processes, delayed product launches and greater uncertainty when expanding across the region.

Genesis brought this evidence together in a policy brief outlining the economic value of cross-border data flows to the EAC, the costs to businesses of the current fragmented regulatory environment, and key considerations for policymakers as the regional framework moves from agreed principles into legislative drafting. The work highlighted that harmonisation can support trade, investment and regional digital integration, but that its economic benefits will depend on whether the resulting framework meaningfully reduces practical regulatory frictions while maintaining appropriate safeguards for data protection and trust.

The policy brief was published by AmCham Kenya and endorsed by the Eastern Africa Regional Digital Integration Project (EARDIP), helping bring private-sector evidence into a live regional policy process shaping the future governance of data flows across the EAC.

Download the full report below