Cybersecurity in Africa: A Critical Challenge for Businesses
Africa's cybersecurity market is estimated at $2.7 billion by 2025. Up to 10% of GDP could be compromised by cyberattacks.
Cybersecurity has become a major issue for African businesses. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, up to 10% of African countries' annual GDP could be compromised by cyberattacks. The continent's cybersecurity market is estimated at $2.7 billion by 2025.
Threats are multiple and specific: ransomware targeting public institutions and hospitals, financial fraud targeting West African banks, phishing facilitated by low awareness levels, and botnets affecting telecommunications infrastructure.
The landscape is uneven: countries like Kenya, Mauritius, and Senegal have established national cybersecurity strategies, while others lack resources. Most African data is stored on foreign servers, exposing the continent to surveillance risks. Establishing local data centers — like the one inaugurated in Guinea in September 2024 — is a crucial step.
For SMEs, cybersecurity basics are often neglected: weak passwords, no backups, unmanaged access rights, no disaster recovery plan. At INTERACT GROUP, our IT Security offering covers infrastructure auditing, firewall hardening, access rights management, automated backups, and disaster recovery planning.
Adoption of digital services — mobile banking, e-commerce, cloud ERP — directly depends on user confidence in system security. Investing in cybersecurity is not a cost, it's a condition for survival and growth.