The risk taxing electronic transmissions poses to Africa’s digital future 

Segun Olugbile, the Cofounder & Chief Executive Officer, founded Data Analytics Privacy Technology (DAPT) out of a longstanding commitment to creating a safer cyberspace. Through his early work with the Council of Europe, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the UN’s Multistakeholder Advisory Group on Internet Governance, he saw first-hand: authorities were focused more heavily on combatting cybercrime than on strengthening cybersecurity.

That imbalance matters. Weak cybersecurity and data protection undermine trust in digital systems and discourage investment, slowing the digital adoption needed for companies to grow.

When Nigeria introduced its first national data-protection regulation in 2019, Mr. Olugbile saw an opportunity to respond to that gap. He founded DAPT to help companies comply with the new rules, and to give businesses and consumers greater confidence in using digital services. “Our aim was to safeguard investment and to encourage people to use digital services,” he said. With this focus, DAPT quickly emerged as a pioneer in Nigeria’s data-protection landscape. Today, with a core team of 15 staff, DAPT supports more than 70 companies navigating Nigeria’s evolving data-protection landscape.

However, DAPT’s work depends heavily on digital infrastructure that sits outside Nigeria. In total, 90% of its services depend on cross-border data exchanges or digital tools, including cloud hosting and regulatory technology that are hosted abroad.

“As a data protection compliance organisation, our core product is electronically transmitted compliance and advisory services,” he said. At the extreme, DAPT’s business is best understood as digitally borderless. While its staff is based in Nigeria, its core cloud infrastructure is hosted abroad – making cross-border electronic transmissions central to its day-to-day operations.

That is why the WTO e-commerce Moratorium matters to Mr. Olugbile business.

By preventing customs duties on electronic transmissions, it helps keep the digital tools DAPT relies on affordable and predictable. Without it, new tariffs on cloud services or digital platforms would raise costs and introduce uncertainty into a business built on stable digital infrastructure.

Those costs would not stop with DAPT, but instead be passed on to the companies that rely on DAPT’s services – making cybersecurity and data-protection services harder to access. That could undermine the adoption of cybersecurity and data-protection services, with unintended consequences for digital security in Nigeria.

The Moratorium is central to Africa’s digitally driven future 

“Africa’s trade future is being built digitally, day, by day,” Mr. Olugbile says. Nigeria’s micro- small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) rely on affordable global digital tools to start their businesses, stay competitive and reach customers locally and internationally. A tax on cross-border electronic transmissions, he warns, would disadvantage the core operational efficiency of every business in Nigeria and potentially set the country’s development back significantly.

For Mr. Olugbile, the issue is practical and immediate. “I can have the best idea but if I don’t have access to the right or most advanced tools, I will be miles behind my competitors. MSMEs and young people like me need tools that are affordable – sometimes even free – if we are to compete.”

That is why Mr. Olugbile sees the renewal of the WTO e-commerce Moratorium as critical. “Any marginal revenue gained from taxing electronic transmissions would come at the cost of slower digital growth and reduced affordability for MSMEs,” he said. “You cannot tax these tools of development and expect prosperity.”

Nigeria’s digital economy which contributes about 18% of GDP, relies heavily on cross-border digital services. Renewing the Moratorium, Mr. Olugbile adds, would provide policy continuity and signal support for digital inclusion. “It would send a clear signal that the world supports Africa’s ambition to be digital producers, not just digital consumers.”

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ICC is committed to securing what business needs at the WTO’s 14th Ministerial Conference in March 2026. Learn more about the importance of renewing the WTO e-Commerce Moratorium and our call for WTO reform.