Artificial intelligence is enabling 55% of reported cybercrime across Africa, while cybercrime-related losses have more than doubled to $484 million since 2024, the Director-General of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), COP Lydia Yaako Donkor, has said.
COP Donkor said the figures, contained in Interpol’s 2026 African cyber threat assessment, highlight the growing scale and sophistication of cybercrime across the continent.
She disclosed this at the launch of the 2026 National Cyber Security Awareness Month for the Ghana Police Service and the law enforcement community on Tuesday, September 1, 2026.
She said criminals were increasingly using artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency to expand their operations, with generative AI now capable of producing convincing phishing messages, cloning voices, creating synthetic images and videos, and automating personalised deception.
“Cybercrime is no longer merely isolated offending. It is increasingly an industrialised, borderless criminal ecosystem,” she said.
COP Donkor said Ghana’s rapid digital transformation had created opportunities through mobile money, internet banking, payment applications, online commerce and instant transfers, but criminals were exploiting the same speed and convenience.
She said law enforcement agencies were confronting organised networks using social engineering, stolen identities, mule accounts, compromised devices, malicious links, fake businesses, cryptocurrency, fraudulent investments and rapidly moving digital funds.
The CID has consequently expanded its use of technology in criminal investigations, she said, noting that digital evidence can be critical in cases involving fraud, extortion, kidnapping, child exploitation and organised crime.