Artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating cybercrime across Africa, with Nigeria emerging as both a major source and target of attacks, as cyber-related losses across the continent more than doubled to $484 million, according to INTERPOL’s African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026.
The 40-page report, released recently, revealed that AI now enables 55 per cent of reported cybercrimes across Africa by making attacks faster, more scalable, and increasingly difficult for victims, financial institutions, and digital platforms to detect.
The findings come as Africa’s digital economy continues to expand rapidly, with the continent recording more than 1.1 billion mobile subscribers in 2025.
However, INTERPOL warned that fragmented cybercrime legislation and weak AI preparedness among law enforcement agencies are leaving millions of users exposed to increasingly sophisticated attacks.
Drawing on survey responses from 36 African member countries, the report said cybercrime has evolved from isolated incidents into an industrialised, borderless ecosystem driven by AI-powered scams, credential theft, and automated social engineering.
According to the assessment, online scams remained the most frequently reported cybercrime in 2025, with criminals exploiting mobile money platforms, social media, and AI-generated content to deceive victims. It added that 72 per cent of surveyed countries reported the presence of scam centres, particularly across West and Southern Africa.
The report identified West Africa as the continent’s most active region for Business Email Compromise (BEC), while Nigeria recorded 5,822 ransomware detections in 2025, reflecting its “dual role as an origin and target of cybercrime.”
It also noted that the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) website was compromised in 2025, disrupting economic data collection and fuelling disinformation campaigns, underscoring the vulnerability of critical national institutions to cyber intrusions.
Beyond ransomware, mobile money fraud, cryptocurrency scams, Ponzi schemes, and romance scams continued to proliferate across the region, often operating through networks disguised as fintech start-ups and supported by cross-border money-laundering operations.
The report further highlighted a growing trend in the use of synthetic identities, where criminals combine genuine personal information with fabricated data to bypass biometric verification systems, enabling them to open bank accounts, obtain mobile loans, and register SIM cards under false identities.
It added that the absence of real-time information sharing among banks, telecommunications companies, and law enforcement agencies remains a major weakness exploited by cybercriminals.
Speaking on the findings, the Director of INTERPOL’s Cybercrime Directorate, Neal Jetton, said cybercrime had become one of the region’s most significant criminal threats.
INTERPOL noted that coordinated international efforts were beginning to deliver results. Four major operations—Operation Serengeti 2.0, Operation Contender 3.0, Operation Sentinel, and Operation Red Card 2.0—resulted in more than 1,500 arrests, the seizure of hundreds of electronic devices, and the recovery of over $100 million.
The organisation called for stronger cross-border collaboration, standardised digital forensic capabilities, greater investment in AI training for law enforcement officers, and deeper public-private partnerships to strengthen cyber resilience across Africa.
