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Africa’s FinTech Sector Overlooks Cybersecurity Risks Amid Rapid Digital Growth

Fintech and Financial Services

Business Honor - Africa FinTech Cybersecurity Challenges

Business Honor
20 August, 2025

Africa’s rapidly growing FinTech sector faces significant cybersecurity gaps despite leadership confidence, risking increased exposure to cyberattacks.

Africa's rapidly expanding FinTech landscape, one of the drivers of digital payments, mobile banking, and financial inclusion, might be ignoring vital cybersecurity loopholes, based on KnowBe4's recently published Africa Human Risk Management Report 2025. The report, based on field surveys in 30 countries, identifies a striking gap between leadership perception and frontline reality in FinTech companies. Executives are convinced that their companies are well equipped to face cyber threats, but the employees say they lack adequate training, sloppy incident response policies, and increasing security vulnerabilities—exposing the industry to increased cyberattack risks.

FinTech businesses lead the charge in Africa's digital revolution, providing mobile-first financial solutions to tens of millions of underserved consumers. As the industry grows, though, so too does it become a more appealing target for phishing, account takeovers, and social engineering scams. The research discovered that while leaders score employee security awareness high, just 10% believe that employees would report a phishing attack—highlighting a perilous awareness-to-action gap. Training gaps only add to the problem. Whereas 68% of leaders say their employees get role-based cybersecurity training, just one-third of employees report that training is actually aligned with their own job responsibilities. This is especially problematic for FinTech companies, where front-line personnel work with sensitive customer information and developers work on essential digital infrastructure.

The report also highlights risks due to extensive use of personal devices for business. As mobile-first services are the backbone of FinTech, inadequate security on devices might breach entire digital payment networks. It is compounded by a lack of clear regulation of AI software, which is being increasingly adopted in fraud prevention and customer support. Lacking authoritative policy, fast-track AI adoption could create new exposures. In order to maintain trust and innovation, FinTech companies are required to harmonize cybersecurity practices and their digital aspirations and fast growth.