Africa’s Digital Growth Outpacing Cybersecurity

The continent of 1.5+ billion is ever-expanding. Currently in the throes of a major technological boom, Africa is witnessing more people online, more businesses using cloud services, and new fintech and mobile money platforms launching every other day. But the Africa Cybersecurity Report – Kenya 2024/2025 by Serianu underscores how this growth has created a big problem: our cybersecurity is not keeping up.

The report explains that our digital growth as driven by cloud, AI, APIs and fintech, is moving much faster than the security systems meant to protect it. Simply put, we are building technology systems faster than we are securing them.

With a total GDP of $2.8 trillion, 570 million internet users, and 855 million mobile data subscriptions, Africa presents significant economic opportunities. It also teems with more chances for cybercriminals to attack. The disparity between internet access growth and the investments being made to secure it creates a “maturity gap” across governments and organisations.

At the same time, Africa is spending more than ever before on cybersecurity. In 2024/25, the continent spent $15.3 billion in a bid to protect her digital systems. Even so, cybercrime still caused $5 billion in losses. In essence, for every three dollars Africa spends on cybersecurity, one dollar is still lost to attacks. The report calls this Africa’s “3:1 resilience ratio.”

Identity theft shines as a problem. Nearly half of all cyber incidents across the continent, about 48 per cent, start with someone stealing or misusing login details through phishing, fake emails, Business Email Compromise, and tricking people into giving away passwords. When criminals get hold of someone’s credentials in a mobile-first continent where identity controls access to money, this is a major risk.

But even though identity attacks are the most common, they are not the most expensive. That honour goes to ransomware attacks and supply-chain failures. These attacks make up a third of all financial losses. Africa depends heavily on shared systems from cloud platforms, payment services, telecom networks and government digital services. When one system goes down, it often takes many others with it.

Four sectors carry the biggest cyber risk: financial services, government, telecoms and fintech. Together, they make up about 70 per cent of the incidents and losses recorded in the report. These sectors are also key, driving the continent’s digital transformation. Mobile money, digital banking, government e-services and online payments all rely on them. So, when they are attacked, the impact is earth-shattering.

The shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals continues to leave its mark as well. With about 400,000 people working in cybersecurity, fewer than a third have formal certification. The skills gap continues to grow in a chasm affecting both the public and private sectors. As more services move online, the demand for qualified cybersecurity experts is rising faster than the supply.

Technical weaknesses are changing, too. In the past, network attacks were the biggest problem. Today, the report shows that cloud, API and application misconfigurations have become the main source of data exposure. Organisations are moving to the cloud at an accelerated pace, but unfortunately, not always configuring their systems correctly or monitoring them closely enough.

All this is inspiring leaders to think differently about cybersecurity. Boards are no longer satisfied with simply knowing their organisation has security tools. They are all about recovery and bouncing back from a crisis. They want proof of resilience, not just compliance. As the report puts it, cyber resilience is now a basic business requirement.

Finally, artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping how organisations work and how attackers operate. The AI versus AI war has losers strewn across the battleground. Companies are using AI for fraud detection, credit scoring, and spotting cyber threats faster than humans can. But criminals are also using AI to create believable phishing emails, fake voices, deepfakes, and malware that changes constantly to avoid detection. It is compelling businesses to not only adopt AI, but also manage it safely and ethically.

In the end, the report shows a clear picture. Africa’s technological expansion is exposing her to risks. Unless cybersecurity grows at the same speed, said risks will continue to rise. The digital future has to be protected.