From 4 to 6 February, 13 AFI African member institutions gathered in Matola City, Mozambique, to exchange insight on how to strengthen cybersecurity in digital financial services.

The workshop, co-hosted with Banco de Moçambique, follows the recent launch of AFI’s African cybersecurity information sharing initiative. A Cybersecurity Task Team, comprising representatives from all AFI member institutions in Africa, is currently mapping the state of cybersecurity information-sharing and peer learning initiatives across African financial regulators.

The three-day workshop explored existing country-level and sub-regional cyber information sharing initiatives, looking at how information flows are structured, how privacy, confidentiality and trust are safeguarded, how regulators and policymakers collaborate with industry, what governance arrangements enable coordinated responses, how incident playbooks are designed, and how cross-border threat intelligence networks are sustained.

AFI members discussed current practices and gaps to be addressed with their peers and heard from guest experts including the Africa Cybersecurity Resource Centre, National Institute of Information and Communication Technologies (INTIC)-Mozambique, and BIS cyber resilience coordination centre.

“A consistent theme running throughout our deliberations has been the recognition that cyber risk cannot be addressed in isolation,” said AFI Head of Policy Management, Ali Ghiyazuddin. “In order to build resilient financial cybersecurity ecosystems, we’ll need stronger coordination between institutions, robust incident-reporting frameworks, and trusted and collaborative mechanisms for information sharing at national, regional, and cross-border levels.”

LEARN MORE: AFI Africa Members’ Communiqué “Strengthening Cybersecurity for Inclusive and Secure Digital Financial Services”