Cybersecurity In Africa: Awareness Must Now Become Capability
Cybersecurity In Africa: Awareness Must Now Become Capability
https://cioafrica.co/cybersecurity-in-africa-awareness-must-now-become-capability/
Publish Date: 2026-05-05 04:05:00
Source Domain: cioafrica.co
Cybersecurity in Africa can’t be separated from business, governance, public trust or digital inclusion, especially as cyber risks rise alongside expanding digital services. The real question is not whether people are aware of the threats, but whether the institutions they rely on are ready to prevent, detect and respond in ways that enable safe and inclusive participation in the digital economy.
Recent evidence shows why cybersecurity matters. INTERPOL reported in 2025 that cybercrime now accounts for more than 30 percent of reported crime in Western and Eastern Africa, with online scams, ransomware, business email compromise and digital sextortion among the most reported threats. This data built on prior INTERPOL analysis that found that ransomware, business email compromise, and online scams are among the fastest-growing cyber threats across Africa.
This clear warning comes as Africa continues to ramp up digital infrastructure. Governments across Africa are providing services online, financial institutions are deepening digital platforms, the use of mobile money is increasing, and trade is becoming more cloud connected.
While these shifts create enormous opportunities, they also create new points of vulnerability. Kaspersky detected increases in attacks ranging from malware to spyware across Africa in 2024. We have no reason to believe that the pace of attack has since slowed. The growing importance of digital services makes them increasingly attractive to criminal networks.
Beyond awareness
While public education remains important, we need to do more than teach people how to recognise phishing attempts, suspicious links, fake payment requests and social engineering.
Awareness does not stop a coordinated attack – it merely starts the process of protecting assets. Without capacity, such as secure backups, monitoring systems, access controls, tested incident response plans or trained personnel, entities have no protection.
This is where the…
