Cyberattacks targeting African organisations rose more than 421% between 2016 and 2025, outpacing a 307% increase globally, according to a Mastercard-commissioned white paper that highlights mounting security risks as digital payments and online services expand across the continent.
Mastercard Cyber Insights recorded 69,236 cyber events targeting African organisations in 2025, equivalent to roughly one every eight minutes, the report, Africa’s Digital Defense Race, said.
The findings come as Africa’s digital economy expands rapidly. Mobile money users increased 5.9-fold between 2016 and 2025, digital banking users rose 4.7-fold and the e-commerce market grew 5.3-fold, according to the report. Africa’s digital payments economy is projected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2030, it said.
Cybersecurity consultancy Serianu estimated that cybercrime cost African economies $5 billion in 2025, highlighting the financial exposure of businesses and governments as they expand digital services. Its Africa Cybersecurity Report: Kenya 2024/2025 also estimated that cybersecurity spending across the continent reached $15.3 billion, equivalent to 0.55% of Africa’s gross domestic product.
The estimates are based on Serianu’s modelling and should be interpreted in light of its methodology. They are not directly comparable with Mastercard’s count of observed cyber events, which measures a different aspect of the threat landscape.
The risks are growing alongside digital financial services. Global mobile money transactions exceeded $2 trillion in 2025, a 23% increase from the previous year, according to the GSMA’s 2026 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money. The industry recorded 2.3 billion registered accounts worldwide, underscoring the scale of the digital financial infrastructure that criminals may seek to exploit.
“Africa’s digital growth is creating real opportunity for people and businesses across the continent, and protecting it has become a leadership priority. As threats become more sophisticated and coordinated, our response has to be just as coordinated. That is why we launched the Africa Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, bringing the public and private sectors together to share intelligence, knowledge and best practices. Building that resilience together is how Africa continues to grow with confidence,” said Shabir Ahmed, Mastercard’s senior vice president and customer solutions centre lead for Africa.
Artificial intelligence adds to the threat
Artificial intelligence is increasing the speed and scale of some cyberattacks, according to law enforcement agencies. INTERPOL’s 2026 Africa Cyberthreat Assessment found that AI was linked to 55% of reported cybercrime across the continent, as criminals increasingly use automated tools for phishing, impersonation and fraud.
INTERPOL has also warned that cybercrime accounts for more than 30% of reported crime in parts of Eastern and Western Africa. Its assessments have identified online scams, ransomware, business email compromise and digital sextortion among the threats facing the continent.
Serianu’s analysis of African cyber threats identified phishing and social engineering among the prominent attack methods, alongside exploitation of software vulnerabilities and system misconfigurations. Such attacks can compromise credentials, divert payments, expose sensitive information and provide access to corporate networks.
AI tools can lower the cost of producing convincing fraudulent messages and impersonating legitimate businesses or individuals. However, the scale of AI-enabled cybercrime varies across jurisdictions, and reported incidents do not capture all attacks that occur.
Financial services among key targets
The Mastercard white paper identifies technology, public services and financial services as the three sectors accounting for 44% of observed cyber activity. Personal information, financial information and customer-facing services together represented 27% of targeted assets, it said.
These sectors are central to Africa’s digital transformation, connecting consumers to banking, mobile money, e-commerce and government services. Their growing reliance on interconnected systems can also increase the potential impact of security breaches, particularly where a compromised supplier or technology provider serves multiple organisations.
Nigeria, home to one of Africa’s largest fintech ecosystems, accounted for a significant share of the attacks observed by Mastercard in 2025, according to the report. South Africa’s concentrated financial sector was targeted by 12.6% of the continent’s observed attacks.
The report also highlighted Morocco’s cybersecurity governance structures and the importance of strengthening protection across the financial and digital infrastructure supporting economic growth.
Workforce shortages constrain defences
Africa had about 200,000 unfilled cybersecurity positions at the end of 2025, equivalent to 23% of its existing cybersecurity workforce, the Mastercard white paper said.
The shortage presents a challenge for organisations seeking to secure cloud platforms, payment networks, public databases and AI systems while responding to increasingly sophisticated threats.
Serianu has also identified shortages of specialist skills and gaps in organisational preparedness as constraints on Africa’s cybersecurity capacity. Expanding professional training, improving incident response and increasing investment in security operations are among the measures needed to close those gaps.
Cross-border cooperation
International police operations have demonstrated the potential of coordinated responses. Between June and August 2025, INTERPOL’s Operation Serengeti 2.0 led to 1,209 arrests across 18 African countries and the recovery of $97.4 million, according to figures cited by Mastercard.
Cross-border cooperation is particularly important because cybercriminals can operate from one country, target victims in another and move proceeds through financial systems spanning several jurisdictions.
Mastercard said its Africa Cybersecurity Center of Excellence works with governments, financial institutions and businesses to share threat intelligence, monitor risks and strengthen preparedness through scenario-based exercises.
The company’s white paper argues that sustaining Africa’s digital growth will require investment in security infrastructure, stronger governance, workforce training and cross-border intelligence-sharing as cybercriminals increasingly target the systems connecting African economies.
Mohd Hassan has extensive experience in news gathering, editing, and writing for the newswire industry, Contact – Info@impactnews-wire.com
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