The CyberFI project works to coordinate global efforts to advance cybersecurity as a priority consideration in digital financial systems, with a special focus on digital financial ecosystems across Africa. We are pleased to publish this chapter as part of EU Cyber Direct’s Closing the Gap conference. We aim to critically analyze the current narratives toward cybersecurity capacity building, particularly on the African continent. We argue that by leapfrogging legacy infrastructures and contextually adapting technologies to connect the unconnected, Africa has a lot to contribute to prevailing discourses on capacity-building based on the fast-growing fintech sectors in several countries. To this end, we propose an analytical framework for a nuanced understanding of capacity-building challenges in emerging markets that can help elevate everyone’s contributions to the global governance of cyberspace and digital technologies.
Executive Summary
Bolstering cybersecurity has become an increased priority in the financial sector. A slew of cyber attacks to the financial system post-2016 exposed systemic risks in cyberspace and created an impetus for countries to robustly protect themselves against digital threats.
Maintaining a secure cyberspace for the financial system has implications for digital financial inclusion, particularly among vulnerable populations. Previous definitions of financial inclusion have traditionally been framed from a nondigital lens. But as countries on the African continent transform their digital financial services, digital financial inclusion (DFI) takes on unique importance. Not only does DFI drive technology adoption in the Global South but it also centers cost-saving methods of access into the financial system, something that previously unbanked or underbanked individuals lacked. Fintech firms in Africa as well as broader digital financial ecosystems are expanding at an unprecedented and rapid pace.
Carnegie’s CyberFI project has…
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