AFDB awards $2 million grant to boost financial inclusion and strengthen cybersecurity in Africa
The African Development Bank (AFDB) board has awarded a $2 million grant in support of launching the African Cybersecurity Resource Center (ACRC) for Financial Inclusion to tackle cybercrime across Africa and to strengthen the resilience of digital financial ecosystems.
The Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI) is a pan-African instrument designed to accelerate digital financial inclusion throughout Africa, with the goal of ensuring that an additional 332 million Africans (60% of them women) have access to the formal financial system.
Sheila Okiro, the ADFI Coordinator stated: “The ADFI operational team and our partners are excited about this project as a secure digital financial services ecosystem is crucial for sustainable financial inclusion. We are counting on the ACRC members and operational partners to help lay the foundation to systemically tackle rising cybersecurity concerns and help build a sustainable model for dissemination of these critical services across the continent.”
The grant which will be disbursed through the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility, will cater to the creation of an affordable shared platform to monitor cyber-attacks against financial service providers and individual customers; rollout of individualized advisory services to enable organizations to bolster their cybersecurity; enhancement of cybersecurity talent development to ensure that African demand for expertise can be met.
Reports shared by Quartz Africa revealed that in 2017, cybercrime cost African countries $3.5 billion. With digital transactions rapidly taking place on mobile phones in Africa, many of which are insecure, the vulnerability is expected to boost trust in financial technology.
According to AFDB, the ACRC project will potentially benefit 250 million vulnerable customers and 2,000-3,000 financial institutions across Africa. Under its gender component, ACRC will specifically target improved cybersecurity for 20-25 million women in five years, and aim to employ a workforce made up of at least 39% women. The African Cybersecurity Resource Center (ACRC) will be headquartered in Dakar, Senegal, and sub-regional resource centers will be set up in West and East Africa.
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