Africa is rapidly expanding mobile financial services, digital government platforms, cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), e-commerce and cross-border trade, connecting more citizens with public and private sector services.
This shift is also central to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), because the success of a free trade area depends as much on efficient digital systems as lower tariffs. Without them, businesses still face delays caused by paper-based, fragmented and manual trade processes.
Africa’s increasing digitisation is evidenced through the growth in the use of mobile technology, with 710 million people now connected to mobile devices, a 47% penetration rate – a figure the GSMA expects to rise to 53% by 2030. At the same time, the World Bank shows there has been a 115% increase in internet users between 2016 and 2021 in sub-Saharan Africa.
Threat landscape
Along with the considerable social and economic opportunities that are enabled by a digital infrastructure, there is an increased number of systems, suppliers, devices, data repositories and users that criminals can exploit.
The level of cyber exploitation is encapsulated in INTERPOL’s Africa Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2025, drawing on responses from 43 African member countries. The study found that more than two-thirds of respondents said cyber-dependent and cyber-enabled crimes accounted for a moderate to high share of all offences. Online scams, ransomware, business email compromise and identity theft were among the most widespread.
As cyberattacks become inevitable, the priority is no longer preventing every incident but anticipating threats, detecting intrusions quickly, containing the damage and recovering with minimal disruption.
frica’s greatest cybersecurity risk is not simply the growing number of attacks but also a persistent – and growing – gap between digital expansion and institutional preparedness. Writes Dr Jannie Zaaiman, Secretary General, Technology Information Confederation Africa (TICON Africa).
Maturity varies
However, it’s important to understand that Africa can’t be treated as a single, uniform cybersecurity environment. Countries differ widely in the strength of their legal frameworks, regulatory capacity, technical infrastructure, incident response capabilities, cybersecurity skills and international cooperation.