The numbers
Sub-Saharan Africa has 600 million mobile phone users and 400 million mobile banking users (source GSMA). In Kenya, M-Pesa processes $32 billion in transactions per year — more than the GDP of some neighboring countries. In Nigeria, fintechs process hundreds of millions of dollars daily.
Cybercrime costs the continent $4 billion per year according to Interpol — yet cybersecurity investment amounts to just $2 billion, or 0.1% of continental GDP. By comparison, Europe invests 10 times more as a share of GDP.
Recent incidents
In 2024, a ransomware attack on TransUnion South Africa exposed the data of 54 million citizens. Nigeria's electrical grid suffered documented intrusions reported by Premium Times. Ghanaian banks reported a 200% increase in online fraud attempts.
Why now
The timing with the Hormuz crisis is no coincidence. African critical infrastructure is already under strain — power outages, diesel shortages for generators, fuel rationing. A cyberattack on a fragile electrical grid does not have the same consequences as one on a resilient European network. The former goes down for days. The latter switches to backup in minutes.
Premium Times in Nigeria and News24 in South Africa are covering it. Western media are not. Nobody is watching — and that is precisely the problem.
