Spatial data is a key resource for the development of a nation. There is a lot of economic potential that is locked away in spatial data collections and this potential is realised by making the data widely available. Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) provide a platform for spatial data users, producers and those that manage it, to distribute the data more efficiently. Through SDI, the available spatial data resources are made available to those that need to use them for making more informed decision about location related phenomenon. Some previous research efforts point to the fact that more than 80% of decisions have a location component and that makes spatial data key in facilitating the decision making process. Although there has been considerable effort by organisations such the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) to spread an awareness of SDI and the important role they play in national development, their implementation is being done at a seemingly very slow pace in Africa.

Various factors contribute to a successful SDI implementation. Some countries have adopted the use of an SDI steering committee that is responsible for making the SDI initiative known to the potential stakeholders and then consequently working with them to implement the SDI. Steering committees normally look at the implementation process from five different perspectives namely; the Enterprise, Information, Computation, Engineering and Technology viewpoints. Over or under emphasis of any of the five viewpoints can lead to an SDI that is not balanced in meeting the different user requirements. One main way of measuring the success of an SDI is by evaluating whether or not the intended stakeholders are getting the initially anticipated benefits from the SDI. It is however not accurate to say that an SDI has been unsuccessful when it is still in the process of being implemented. The clearing house is normally used as a measure of the SDI implementation success although it's possible to have an inefficient spatial data handling policy framework coming with it. A balanced and conscience approach should therefore be used to measure the success of SDI implementation.

This paper reviews the status of SDI implementation in selected African countries; the main objective being to evaluate whether implementation has been successful or not so far. The review covers all the African regions i.e. the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries, North, East, West and central Africa. In these regions, at most 3 countries are selected for the review and it is assumed that they represent the status of SDI implementation in those regions. The analysis of the implementation status is based on information from various agents that are responsible or actively involved in SDI implementation in the selected countries. The writer also investigates whether or not some of the seemingly successful SDI are actually delivering the initially intended service to the stakeholders. At the end of the review, the writer broadly explores the possible models that African countries can adopt to foster SDI implementation based on the results of the review.