Keypoints:
- Reported losses more than doubled
- AI featured in 55 percent of cases
- Police face serious skills shortages
AFRICA’S reported cybercrime-related losses more than doubled to $484m in 2025 as artificial intelligence helped criminal networks scale fraud, impersonation and automated attacks, according to Interpol’s latest assessment of the continent’s digital threat landscape.
The headline figure covers losses formally reported to authorities and does not represent cybercrime’s full cost. Interpol’s report cites aggregated estimates suggesting cybercrime caused at least $5bn in direct economic damage across Africa during the year, highlighting the widening gap between rapid digital growth and institutional protection.
Losses and victim numbers surge
The African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026 draws on responses from 36 of Interpol’s 49 African member countries, supported by national incident reports and intelligence from private cybersecurity companies and regional law-enforcement bodies.
Reported losses rose from $192m in 2024 to $484m in 2025, while the number of identified victims increased from 35,000 to 87,000. Interpol cautioned that underreporting and inconsistent national methodologies meant the true financial impact was likely to be higher.
The exposure is growing alongside Africa’s digital economy. The continent recorded more than 1.1bn mobile subscriptions and over $1.1tn in digital transactions in 2025, while about 570m people used the internet.
That expansion has widened access to finance and public services, but it has also exposed weaknesses examined in Africa Briefing’s analysis of Africa’s rising cybersecurity risk.
AI transforms the fraud business
Artificial intelligence featured in 55 percent of the cybercrime cases reported through Interpol’s member-country survey. It was used occasionally in 47 percent of cases and frequently in another 8 percent.
Criminals now use AI throughout the attack cycle, from identifying potential victims and producing personalised phishing messages to creating synthetic identities, deepfake recordings and malicious tools designed to evade detection.
The technology has made fraud faster, cheaper and easier to scale. AI-generated audio and video can imitate executives, public officials and relatives, while fabricated identities can be used to bypass customer checks, open accounts, register SIM cards and obtain mobile loans.
Online scams, including phishing, were the most frequently reported cybercrime category, accounting for 17 percent of cases. Business email compromise remained the most financially damaging attack vector.
The findings reflect a wider global surge in cyber-enabled financial crime highlighted by the Financial Action Task Force.
Regional threats take different forms
Interpol found that East Africa had become a hub for mobile-money fraud and ransomware targeting infrastructure.
Central Africa recorded rising social-engineering and botnet activity, while business email compromise and romance scams were widespread across both Central and West Africa. Weak public awareness and fragmented institutional responses deepened vulnerability.
West Africa also recorded French-language scams and cryptocurrency fraud. In Cote d’Ivoire, the report identified predatory online lending and mobile-credit fraud as emerging concerns.
Southern Africa remained the continent’s most digitally advanced and heavily targeted sub-region. Its data centres, financial systems and international cable links have attracted criminals seeking high-value targets.
Police struggle to keep pace
Only 8 percent of intelligence analysts surveyed had advanced AI expertise, while 92 percent of agencies identified inadequate technical knowledge as the main barrier to using AI tools.
Some 94 percent of agencies reported insufficient digital-forensics equipment. A further 78 percent cited wider shortages involving budgets, response vehicles, IMSI catchers and specialist personnel, while 89 percent identified weak cross-border cooperation as the biggest obstacle to successful investigations.
Interpol nevertheless recorded more than 1,500 arrests through coordinated operations. Operation Sentinel, spanning 19 countries, led to 574 arrests, the removal of more than 6,000 malicious links and the recovery of about $3m.
The operational push complements efforts such as the AfDB–Interpol financial crime partnership and Mastercard’s new Africa cybersecurity hub.
What happens next?
Interpol is urging governments to establish a centralised, real-time African cybercrime reporting portal integrated with national computer emergency response teams, financial institutions and telecom providers.
It also recommends dedicated cryptocurrency investigation units, AI-assisted detection tools, standardised forensic capabilities and faster cross-border digital-evidence sharing.
Cybersecurity can no longer be treated as a narrow technology issue. Without stronger institutions, trained investigators and sustained regional cooperation, the systems powering Africa’s digital growth will remain exposed to criminal networks operating at machine speed.
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