Cybersecurity is now a finance fight – BoG warns

The First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Zakari Mumuni, has underscored the critical need to place cybersecurity at the heart of financial governance, citing the growing threat of cyber fraud across the continent.

Speaking at the 2025 Africa Financial Inclusion Policy Initiative (AfPI) meetings in Accra, Dr. Mumuni revealed that Africa loses an estimated USD4 billion annually to cybercrime, a figure that highlights the urgent need for regulatory and institutional reforms.

The roundtable, co-hosted by the Bank of Ghana and the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), brought together policymakers, financial regulators, and experts from across the continent to deliberate on the theme: “Strengthening Cyber Resilience in Digital Financial Services in Africa: The Role of Financial Regulators.”

“Cybercrime is not a distant risk. It is a present danger. In 2022, for instance, in Ghana alone, we recorded over 21,000 cyber fraud attempts in the financial sector, most targeting digital platforms. Across Africa, the cost of cybercrime is estimated to have exceeded USD4 billion annually, according to Interpol.

“This reality underscores a simple truth: financial inclusion without system integrity is unsustainable. Cybersecurity is no longer an IT issue. It is a strategic imperative at the core of financial governance,” Dr. Mumuni stated.

His remarks resonated with the central focus of the gathering, building resilience in the face of increasing digital threats to financial systems. Participants explored strategies to ensure that the digital transformation of financial services does not come at the expense of user security, particularly for low-income and vulnerable populations.

Also addressing the event, the Chief Executive Officer of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, Dr. Alfred Hannig, emphasized the risks digitalization can pose if adequate safeguards are not put in place.

“Digitalization is transforming economies and the financial ecosystem fast. As a matter of fact, as we all know and we all enjoy, financial services have become more accessible to lower-income individuals, costs have been reduced, service quality has improved, and service reach has broadened. We do recognize that the rise, especially of digital payments and transfers, has been one of the key developments driving the rapid increase in access and usage on the continent.

“However, we also realize that technologies come with risks which, as you all know, could have dramatic consequences—especially for the vulnerable. Because if we don’t get it right, poor people can lose the little they have in just one day,” Dr. Hannig cautioned.

The 14th Annual AfPI Roundtable provided a timely platform for stakeholders to share policy insights, build consensus, and propose collaborative frameworks aimed at bolstering digital financial infrastructure across Africa.

With financial inclusion increasingly reliant on digital platforms, the consensus from the forum was clear: cybersecurity must be prioritized if digital finance is to remain a reliable and inclusive tool for economic development.