Artificial intelligence is making cybercrime easier in Africa, Interpol warned in a new report. AI enabled 55% of reported cybercrimes across the continent in 2025, highlighting the scale of a threat that will require greater cooperation on regulation and technological investment to combat.
Identity theft, phishing, and online blackmail were the most reported cybercrime activities in the 36 countries covered by the study last year. Business email compromise scams caused the most financial damage. AI is giving criminals more capacity to conduct “scalable, automated, and highly targeted attacks” with huge costs, the report warned: Africa’s losses to cybercrime amounted to a third of the $15.3 billion spent on cybersecurity, Interpol estimated.
Many African governments are fighting cybercrime with inadequate staffing and equipment. The African Union’s Malabo Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection, adopted in 2014, remains the continent’s main framework for combating cybercrime, but implementation has been uneven.
