Artificial intelligence now drives 55 percent of reported cybercrime across Africa, according to Interpol’s African Cyberthreat Assessment 2026, with losses linked to AI-enabled fraud doubling to an estimated $484 million since 2024.
The assessment points to a sharp rise in deepfake voice and video scams, AI-generated phishing campaigns, and automated social engineering targeting mobile money platforms and retail banking, sectors that have been central to Africa’s financial inclusion gains over the past decade.
The trend reflects a double-edged reality: the same generative AI tools lowering the barrier to entrepreneurship and productivity are also lowering the barrier to entry for organised fraud networks, at a moment when many national law enforcement agencies still lack the specialised digital forensics capacity to keep pace.
For the Zambezi Institute, the findings reinforce a central argument in our work on technology and governance: AI adoption strategies across the continent cannot be separated from AI governance strategies. As Nigeria and other economies race to capture a larger share of AI’s projected economic value, regulators, banks, and telecoms operators will need matching investment in fraud detection, cross-border law enforcement cooperation, and digital literacy to keep the benefits of AI from being outpaced by its risks.
