AfICTA 11th Quarterly eConference

About the Event

As critical as the Internet has become to our daily survival, so is the necessity to further prioritize online safety and security. Recent research by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), titled “Cybersecurity for Development in the 4th Industrial Revolution”, shows that the impact of cybersecurity on economic development continues to grow rapidly. Investment in and adoption of technology and the Internet is rising fast in sectors such as health, commerce, finance, agriculture and education, and such growth can only be sustained with the same measure of safety, transparency and accountability.

The research, conducted in 40 African nations (including 12 from West Africa), showed that a 10% increase in cybersecurity maturity yields between 0.66% and 5.4% increase in per capita GDP in Africa. The higher a nation’s cybersecurity maturity, the lower its cyber financial loss per capita. A 10% rise in Internet penetration enables between 1% and 8.2% increase in GDP per capita, and Africa’s cybersecurity maturity stands at 29.1%, compared with 35.6% for Latin America and 61% for Asia/Middle-East.