African businesses risk higher costs and operational disruption when proprietary cloud platforms, enterprise software and communications systems make it hard to switch providers, according to technology experts interviewed by ITWeb Africa.
Vendor lock-in leaves organisations exposed to rising fees, foreign exchange volatility and costly migrations when their data, systems and staff depend on a single supplier.
Organisations can reduce these risks by securing data portability, maintaining independent backups and testing their ability to migrate before they need to change providers, the experts say.
They also recommend negotiating contractual protections for data ownership, intellectual property, export formats and transition assistance.
The problem extends beyond software licensing costs. Data stored in non-standard formats, integrations built around proprietary platforms and employees trained on specific systems make migration complex and expensive.
Contracts priced in foreign currencies add another risk for businesses earning revenue in local currencies, particularly when exchange-rate movements push up operating costs.
Rodion Sorokin, co-founder and chief technology officer of The Capital Index, describes the exit costs of vendor lock-in as a “hidden tax”, including data-transfer fees, system rewrites and reduced bargaining power at contract renewal.
Organisations should retain control of their encryption keys, maintain independent data backups and run regular exit drills to test whether they can migrate to another provider without major disruption, he says.
The risks are not confined to private businesses. A 2026 analysis by ODI Global found that South African municipalities rely on a limited pool of proprietary technology vendors, with weak data portability and interoperability making it difficult to move between systems.
It highlighted Cape Town’s efforts to build in-house data capabilities to improve data sharing.
Organisations should factor exit costs into technology procurement decisions rather than assess contracts solely on their initial price, says Todd A. Jacobs, executive director and co-founder of Theia Institute.
He recommends clauses that make the cost of leaving a service predictable.
Organisations should test data exports regularly, retain evaluation data and use documented interfaces to assess alternative providers before a crisis forces a decision, says Vladimir Beskorovainyi, chief technology officer of Besk Tech.
Vendor lock-in can give technology providers excessive control over customers’ options, says Evgenii Arsentev, chief executive officer of telehealth company AskDocDoc. He recommends contractual guarantees for data exports in open formats and advance notice of pricing or configuration changes.
The issue also bears on Africa’s digital sovereignty ambitions.
At GITEX Africa 2026, Kashifu Inuwa, director-general of Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency, urged African countries to move beyond consuming global technology and build their own digital systems.
For businesses, however, reducing vendor lock-in does not necessarily mean abandoning international technology providers. The priority is to be able to switch suppliers at a manageable cost without losing access to data or disrupting critical operations.
Portable data, interoperable systems, independent backups and regularly tested exit plans help preserve that flexibility. Without them, organisations may discover the true cost of their technology dependencies only when they try to leave.
Share
