Fifty-five percent of cybercrime incidents recorded across Africa last year were linked to artificial intelligence, and Nigeria is feeling that pressure more than most. Deepfake cases alone jumped sevenfold between the second and fourth quarters of 2024, with criminals using AI to run automated scams, manufacture fake identities, and find weak spots in critical systems faster than institutions can patch them. The technology is moving quicker than the laws written to contain it, and Nigeria's government knows it.
The country is now working on cybersecurity reform across three separate tracks at once. The Cybercrimes Act of 2015 was amended in February 2024. The National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy, last revised in 2021, is due for its five-year review in 2026. And the proposed National Digital Economy and E-Governance Bill 2025, which went through a public hearing in November 2025, is designed to create a full legal framework for digital services and e-governance. Together, these efforts are meant to cover cybercrime enforcement, institutional security standards, and the rules governing Nigeria's growing digital economy.
A national cybersecurity architecture is also on the table, one that would set baseline security standards for organisations across the country. Critics, however, are watching closely. Without stronger enforcement, better-protected infrastructure, and real investment in local technical skills, the reforms risk expanding state surveillance powers without actually making the digital economy safer for ordinary Nigerians.
On the timeline, Adedeji Stanley Olajide, Chairman of the House Committee on ICT and Cybersecurity, told TechCabal at the International Cybersecurity Conference in Abuja in October 2026 that movement on the executive bill would come "immediately after the election," since political campaign season tends to stall legislative progress. The question now is whether Nigeria's institutions can close the gap with cybercriminals before the next wave of AI-powered attacks arrives.
Originally published by TechCabal.