Abstract:

One of the strategies to lead the cause for a secured cyberspace within the private, public or at the national level is to have good visibility into the cybersecurity capacity of entities with the environment.  The African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection is an indication that African leaders has some initiatives to drive cybersecurity within the region, however without fully understanding the national level commitment and distribution of cybersecurity capacity within the region; it will be difficult to transition into a secure continent.

Data triangulation of current cybersecurity posture of Africa from previous cybersecurity readiness and maturity assessment, journal articles, reports and websites relevant to cyber security situation in Africa was used to argue that Africa Union Commission does not have holistic visibility into the cyber security capacity posture of its member nations; and that this should be the first step in charting a way forward.  

The aim of this paper is to raise awareness within the leadership of Africa Union of the need to step up their cybersecurity effort of monitoring and oversight by empowering the newly constituted African Union Cybersecurity Expert Group to perform at full capacity and draw up a plan to perform a region wide cybersecurity capacity assessment. By working jointly with member nations and international community at the forefront of cybersecurity capacity building, the region will be able to build a more secure and resilient structure that will ensure the social-economic transformation that it desires.