Interpol report highlights AI-led growth of cybercrime in Africa

Details: Vaughan O'Grady; Category: Cybersecurity; 05 August 2026; 3204 views

Artificial intelligence is enabling 55% of reported cybercrimes across Africa, making attacks faster, more scalable, and more difficult for victims and platforms to detect, according to the African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026 from Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organisation.

With more than 1.1 billion mobile subscribers recorded in 2025, Africa’s digital transformation is expanding rapidly. However, cybercrime legislation is fragmented and AI readiness in law enforcement agencies remains alarmingly low. Indeed, cyber-criminality has evolved from isolated incidents into an industrialised, borderless ecosystem.

East Africa, the report says, has emerged as a hub of mobile money fraud and infrastructure-targeted ransomware. Business email compromise and romance scams targeting both corporate and individual victims are prolific in Central and West Africa. Meanwhile, Southern Africa’s ultra-high connectivity makes it a magnet for global threat actors seeking maximum disruption.

Since 2024, the report says, cybercrime-related losses have more than doubled, from US$192 million to US$484 million, driven primarily by AI-facilitated scams, credential harvesting, and automated social engineering campaigns.

According to the report, in 2025, online scams continued to be the most reported type of cybercrime, with attackers leveraging mobile money platforms, social media and AI to reach their targets.

The report also highlights digital sextortion, online harassment, business email compromise (BEC) schemes and systems that combine real personal data with fabricated elements to open bank accounts, secure mobile loans and register SIM cards under false names.

The report reveals that the absence of real-time, inter-agency data sharing between banks, telecoms and law enforcement creates a dangerous blind spot in efforts to combat financial fraud.

However, it adds, meaningful transnational progress is visible. In 2025, 17 countries enacted or amended cybercrime legislation – though, as we have reported, some recent legal attempts to combat cyberthreats have attracted criticism. At the same time, regionally coordinated capacity-building initiatives continue to strengthen long-term cyber resilience.

In its recommendations, the report calls for standardised digital forensic capabilities, enhanced cross-border cooperation, investment in AI literacy among law enforcement officers and formal public-private partnership to support effective prevention, detection and response.

The report can be downloaded from the Interpol website.