Nigerian businesses face mounting threats from cyber attacks, with Mastercard's Cyber Insights platform recording approximately 16,700 cyber events in the country during 2025. This represented 24.4 per cent of the 69,236 events recorded across Africa, making Nigeria the continent's most targeted nation, followed by South Africa, Morocco and Kenya, according to data cited in Mastercard's white paper, Africa's Digital Defence Race.
The financial impact has been substantial. Deloitte estimates cited in the report put Nigeria's total losses to cybercrime at more than $3 billion between 2019 and 2025, averaging approximately $500 million annually. Interpol data cited in the report recorded 5,822 ransomware detections in Nigeria in 2025, highlighting the range of threats companies face.
These attacks take various forms. Phishing links direct users to fraudulent websites designed to steal sensitive information, while malware compromises devices and files. Ransomware restricts access to systems and disrupts operations. For organisations reliant on digital records, the consequences extend to customers, employees and business partners.
The growing threat prompted the launch of Shieldforce's cybersecurity packages on October 8, 2026, at an event in Lagos organised by Ndi-Igbo Computer Village, Epinec Nigeria and SoftwareShop Limited. The endpoint protection solution uses artificial intelligence to identify behaviour linked to malicious software and ransomware, with system monitoring capabilities to trace incident history. Austin C. Agbakor, chief executive officer of SoftwareShop Limited, described it as a complete end-to-end protection solution designed to work across personal computers and servers.