Africa’s digital economy: inclusive growth and trust go hand in hand

Africa’s digital economy is accelerating at a pace few predicted. From Lagos to Nairobi, Johannesburg to Casablanca, more people are transacting online, more small businesses are embracing digital platforms, and more governments are investing in the infrastructure to support a connected future.

However, there is a paradox at the heart of this progress. The same digital platforms powering Africa’s growth are also creating new entry points for cybercriminals.

As Mastercard and its stakeholders work to bring more people and businesses into the digital fold, the question of how to protect them has become as critical as how to connect them.

The opportunity for Africa is immense, but it is built on a foundation of trust. Every time someone taps their phone to pay, or a small business owner accepts a digital payment for the first time, they are placing their confidence in the system behind that transaction.

If that confidence is not protected, it could undermine the very growth that efforts to expand digital inclusion seek to achieve.

Interpol’s 2025 Africa Cyberthreat Assessment found that cyber incidents across the continent resulted in estimated financial losses exceeding $3bn between 2019 and 2025. Online scams, ransomware and business email compromise were among the most financially damaging threats.

Cyberattacks targeting African organisations rose by 37% year on year in the second quarter of 2024, with South Africa and Egypt suffering the highest ransomware detection rates in the region.

Globally, the picture is equally sobering. Cybercrime costs are projected to reach $15.63-trillion annually by 2029, according to Statista, nearly doubling from $9.2-trillion in 2024.

In the financial services industry specifically, distributed denial-of-service attacks rose by 23% between 2023 and 2024, driven by increasingly sophisticated botnets and rising geopolitical tensions, according to a joint report by FS-ISAC and Akamai.

These numbers matter because behind each one are real consequences: businesses losing revenue, consumers losing confidence, and institutions facing erosion of the systems they worked hard to build.

On a continent where millions are still accessing formal financial services for the first time – many through mobile money and digital wallets – the impact of a breach extends far beyond a balance sheet.

Mastercard’s response to this growing threat landscape is rooted in anticipation rather than reaction.

Its cybersecurity approach combines real-time decisioning, identity verification, fraud prevention and advanced technologies to detect threats before they occur.

This capability is increasingly strengthened by artificial intelligence (AI) and tokenisation.

AI helps detect and respond to threats in real time, using behaviour patterns to stop fraud before it happens. At the same time, tokenisation protects sensitive data by replacing real details with secure digital tokens so they are never exposed.

Together, they make data less valuable to criminals, reducing the impact of breaches and helping digital interactions become more secure.

This approach was further strengthened in 2024, when Mastercard acquired the world’s largest threat intelligence company, Recorded Future, to help governments and businesses anticipate risk, bolster resilience and safeguard trust across the digital economy.

Combined with Mastercard’s existing infrastructure to assess cyber risk and identify vulnerabilities early, the capabilities added through this acquisition are helping organisations move from reactive defence to genuine foresight and proactive protection.

In 2025 alone, Mastercard processed 175-billion transactions, leveraging its insights and advanced data science to detect vulnerabilities faster and with greater precision, enhancing protection across the ecosystem.

Over the past three years, its Safety Net technology has helped prevent nearly $50-billion in potential fraud losses across its network.

Its Payments Resiliency systems protect financial institutions during outages, including those caused by cyberattacks, ensuring critical payment infrastructure continues to function when it matters most.

Since 2019, Mastercard has also invested more than $12.6-billion in cybersecurity innovation and supported the development of over 20 cybersecurity-focused startups through programmes like Start Path.

Technology, however powerful, cannot secure a digital economy in isolation.

The digital ecosystem is deeply interconnected, spanning payments, identity, data and infrastructure. Protecting it requires strong collaboration across industries and between the public and private sectors.

This approach is reflected in the launch of Mastercard’s Africa Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, a pan-African platform bringing governments, financial institutions, businesses and cybersecurity leaders together to strengthen digital resilience. Its initiatives include Africa-focused threat intelligence, cyber readiness programmes and executive roundtables.

Across Africa, Mastercard also works with financial institutions and fintech companies to embed secure infrastructure into digital platforms, enabling safe and scalable innovation.

Collaborations with telecommunications providers such as MTN Group and Airtel Africa extend secure digital payments to underserved communities, supporting financial inclusion that is central to the continent’s broader economic ambitions.

In addition, Mastercard works with regulators, including the South African Reserve Bank, to support secure national payment systems and digital identity frameworks.

Together, these collaborations are helping build a more secure, interoperable and trusted digital ecosystem.

When the ecosystem works collectively ― with governments, banks, fintech companies, telecommunication providers and technology companies working together — it not only protects transactions; it creates the conditions for inclusive, sustainable growth for people and businesses across Africa.

As Africa’s digital economy matures, the relationship between growth and security will only deepen.

The continent’s young, increasingly connected population represents an enormous opportunity, but capitalising on it depends on building digital infrastructure that people and businesses can trust.

Mastercard’s commitment to this effort, reflected in its investments, technology and stakeholders across the continent, is helping to lay that foundation.

By strengthening the architecture of trust that underpins every transaction, the company is playing a critical role in ensuring that Africa’s digital promise translates into lasting, inclusive prosperity for all.