Adopting an identity-driven strategy for cybersecurity allows countries and organizations, especially Financial institutions to preemptively address security threats, thus minimizing the impact of potential cyberattacks. Lots of cyberattacks are not traceable due to the lack of efficient identity-driven strategy during transactions. By proactively verifying identities, companies strengthen their overall risk management framework, making it a critical component for robust security measures.

For instance, African financial institutions can use identity verification to combat impersonation, fraud, and money laundering, thereby reducing the incidence of financial crimes. In the retail sector, confirming customer identities can mitigate the risk of fraudulent returns, verify the age of restricted products, ensuring that the customer's identity matches with his payment method.

The positive effects of an identity-driven strategy for cybersecurity in African countries are enormous. Cybersecurity crimes range from impersonation, unauthorized access and use of another individual's payment details, unchecked access to restricted goods ( drugs ), and money laundering. etc is high in Africa. Continuous monitoring of identity-related risks—such as unauthorized access attempts, unusual user behaviour, and compromised credentials—enables proactive threat mitigation, preventing significant security breaches.

Organizations can further strengthen their cyber defences by aligning identity management tools with regulatory requirements, such as anti-money laundering (AML) regulations and Know Your Customer/Know Your Business (KYC/KYB) obligations. This alignment not only ensures regulatory compliance but also minimizes the risk of penalties and enhances fraud detection.

The Crucial Part.

As shown above, an identity-driven approach employed in almost every sphere of life will help enhance the security of businesses, organizations and individuals, however, the crucial part of adopting an identity-driven strategy is Identity Management.
People need to be assured that the information they use to prove their identity to businesses, institutions, etc, is secured and only accessible to the right personnel, alone.

There have been cases of people being cybercrime victims as a result of their personal information being leaked or hacked from the information centres of organizations. Identity-centric security measures should be put in place to help enhance threat detection and promote response capabilities.

Adopting next-generation authentication methods such as AI-driven biometric authentication and multi-factor authentication (MFA) is another route that can ensure the security and trustworthiness of the verification method. We are in a digital era and as such implementing these authentication methods for both workers and customers will enable African businesses to confidently pursue digital transformation while safeguarding their assets.

As African organizations recognize the critical role of identity in security, they equip themselves with the necessary tools to navigate technological advancements and counter emerging cyber threats effectively. Adopting an identity-first approach is not merely a smart security measure but a strategic necessity in an increasingly interconnected world facing a proliferation of cyber threats...