By Suara Sherif
Africa’s digital growth is at risk from foreign exchange volatility and increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence-driven attacks, the Chief Executive Officer of Heirs Technologies has said, pointing to rising cybersecurity costs that are straining businesses across the continent.
“At Heirs Technologies, we believe Africa’s digital expansion must be built on an unshakeable foundation of trust and resilience,” CEO Obong Idiong said. “As cyberthreats become increasingly sophisticated, protecting this growth is essential to sustaining the continent’s digital transformation.”
The warning accompanies the firm’s new report, titled ‘Africa’s Cybersecurity Landscape 2026,’ which found that more than 55 per cent of observed cybercrime cases across Africa now incorporate artificial intelligence. Attackers are leveraging the technology to automate phishing, impersonate individuals through deepfakes and steal digital authentication credentials.
The financial strain is compounded by foreign exchange exposure. Because security software, cloud infrastructure and specialised protection tools are largely priced in dollars and euros, local currency depreciation makes procurement and maintenance increasingly expensive. Consequently, the report notes, some organisations are being forced to reduce the scope of their security deployments or leave purchased tools underutilised, creating critical gaps in their ability to identify and respond to threats.
The threat environment remains severe. Global research cited in the report shows AI-generated phishing messages achieve click-through rates of up to 54 per cent, compared to just 12 per cent for manually crafted attacks. Furthermore, 82 per cent of respondents in Sub-Saharan Africa said they or someone in their professional or personal networks had been affected by cyber-enabled fraud in the preceding 12 months.
Compounding these pressures are shifting regulatory landscapes. In Nigeria, enforcement of the Nigeria Data Protection Act and a Central Bank of Nigeria directive requiring domestic payment data to be hosted locally by January 1, 2027, are adding data sovereignty considerations to security decisions. The requirements are pushing businesses to reassess their cloud infrastructure and adopt hybrid architectures that balance operational flexibility with local data-hosting obligations.
