Nigeria Touts Cyber Success as African Cybercrime Rises

Nigeria’s government has taken a tougher stance against financial fraud and cybercrime, arresting more than 1,000 people in the past year and successfully prosecuting 152 cases related to cyber-related fraud and scams.

On Feb. 3, Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned 42 foreign nationals — mainly Chinese and Filipino — on charges related to alleged cryptocurrency investment and romance fraud, part of a massive raid conducted in December 2024 against a purported cybercriminal syndicate of nearly 800 people.

The defendants willfully “caused to be accessed, a computer system which was organized to seriously destabilize the economic and social structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, by procuring and employing several Nigerian youths for identity theft and other computer related fraud,” according to an EFCC statement.

Cybercrime and cyberattacks continue to be a major problem for Nigeria, and Africa as a whole. The average African organization sees nearly 3,200 attacks per week, 73% more than the global average, according to data provided by cybersecurity firm Check Point Software Technologies. Africa has increasingly become a hub for cybercrime, charting eight countries in Check Point’s top 20 areas at high risk of cybercrime. Ethiopia claimed the top spot as the riskiest nation for cybercrime, while Nigeria ranked number 19.

The continent is rapidly adopting technology, not always with the right security, leading to vulnerable systems, says Lionel Dartnall, acting country manager for South Africa at Check Point.

“We are seeing that Africa is particularly susceptible compared to other regions, and many attackers often test new methods here before deploying them in other parts of the world,” he says, listing the rapidly expanding digital footprint and widespread adoption of cloud computing as factor[s] that are opening up the region to more attacks.”

Africa: Rapidly Securing Its Ecosystem

Overall, the Global South — including nations in the African, Latin American, and South Asian regions — have the lowest number of organizations reporting themselves to be cyber-resilient, according to the World Economic Forum’s “Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2025.” In Europe and North America, about 15% of organizations lack confidence in their nation’s ability to respond to significant cyber incidents. In Africa and Latin America, 36% and 42% lack confidence, respectively.

While African nations are disproportionately represented in the top-20 cyber-riskiest nations and in lacking confidence in their cyber resilience, their economies are also topping the list in terms of growth, with 11 of the 20 fastest-growing economies in Africa. Overall, Africa’s younger population and the increased digitization brings more risk, but also more opportunities, Check Point’s Dartnall says.

“[T]he continent has only 20,000 qualified cybersecurity engineers, indicating a critical need for more experts to join the field,” he says. “However, there is a focus by both private and public sector institutions to stimulate cyber security training especially among young people, both to plug the acute skills gap and also provide critically needed employment.”

Organizations in Nigeria — and Africa as a whole — have suffered a much higher pace of attacks, compared with global groups. Source: Check Point Software’s “2024 African Perspectives on Cyber Security”

Nigeria, however, continues to face economic problems that impact its ability to create a trusted online ecosystem. Nigeria had significant economic challenges over the past three years, including annual inflation of more than 30%, higher unemployment, and growing debt, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2025 Nigeria Budget and Economic Outlook. In 2024, the Nigerian government had to pause the implementation of a cybersecurity tax after public dissent. At the same time, Nigeria saw far more attacks per organizations than the global average.

Importing Cybercrime

The trick for countries like Nigeria is to make cybersecurity jobs available and more appealing than cybercrime. The government has already reached out to organizations, such as the Student Union Executives and the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), to bolster cybersecurity training and fraud awareness.

In addition, law enforcement authorities have ramped up investigations and enforcement operations in the last year. In July 2024, Interpol worked with authorities in 21 countries to arrest the West African cybercriminals involved in financial fraud in an effort dubbed Operation Jackal III. In December 2024, similar cooperation led to the arrest of more than 1,000 suspects linked to more than $192 million in financial losses across Africa.

The Nigerian government has stressed that many of the cybercriminal schemes that operate in the country are not run by Nigerians. During the massive raid leading to the arrest of 792 suspects allegedly involved in a romance and cryptocurrency-investment fraud ring, nearly a quarter of those detained were not Nigerian citizens and included 148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, two Kharzartans, one Pakistani, and one Indonesian, according to a December 2024 statement.

“Foreigners are taking advantage of our nation’s unfortunate reputation as a haven of frauds to establish a foothold here to disguise their atrocious criminal enterprises,” Ola Olukoyede, the EFCC chairman, said at a press conference. “But, as this operation has shown, there will be no hiding places for criminals in Nigeria.”