The Cybersafe Foundation has launched Resilio Africa, a three-year cybersecurity initiative aimed at strengthening the digital resilience of Critical Community Institutions (CCIs) across Africa, with support from Google.org.
The programme targets hospitals, schools, non-profits, helplines, media organisations and other institutions that provide essential services but lack the resources to defend against growing cyber threats.
The initiative will begin in Nigeria and Kenya, before launching in Ghana and South Africa later this year, covering 200 organisations in its first phase.
Speaking at the launch, the Executive Director of Cybersafe Foundation, Confidence Staveley, said the project was designed to close the gap between awareness of cyber risks and real action.
“What happens is that the conversation drops off where it gets to the point of taking action,” she said. “One of the major reasons we’ve seen with that is not just the lack of will, it’s also the lack of financial budgets to cover the cost.”
She explained that Resilio Africa will provide more than 10,000 hours of cybersecurity consulting at no cost to participating institutions, support she said would normally cost over one million dollars.
“That is all being provided by the best of experts in those four countries for free, and that’s what Google.org has helped us offset as a load,” she said.
Staveley stated that the foundation remains a non-profit focused on supporting vulnerable organisations and communities across Africa, adding that the initiative is intended to strengthen digital trust and protect services people rely on every day.
During her welcome address, she pointed to growing cyber activity across sub-Saharan Africa, citing data that showed over 95 million malware-based attacks in the first half of 2025, with spyware, password-stealing malware and backdoor tools among the most common threats.
Staveley said many community institutions operate with outdated systems, limited staff and little or no cybersecurity budget, leaving them exposed. “Attacks are not a matter of if, it is when,” she said.
The keynote address, delivered by Anna Collard, senior vice president for Content Strategy at KnowBe4 Africa, described cyber resilience as a people-centred issue rather than a purely technical one.
“When we think about resilience or cyber resilience, we often think about technology and firewalls and maybe viruses, but actually it’s about people,” Collard said. “We’re doing this to protect people and to ensure we deliver critical services to our people.”
She warned that community institutions such as hospitals and schools are attractive targets because they usually lack the budgets and skills of large financial institutions, but the impact of attacks on them can be severe.
Collard called for cybersecurity to be treated as a shared responsibility and a common good, comparable to public health.
“You can’t just expect one institution to solve those problems by itself,” she said. “We need to ensure that everyone gets up to a certain level of baseline protection.”
Google.org’s support for the initiative was outlined by Haviva Kohl, senior programme manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
“Resilio Africa isn’t just another training workshop,” Kohl said. “It is a holistic resilience programme designed specifically for organisations that lack the resources to sustain a complex security programme.”
She elaborated that Africa recorded a 23% increase in ransomware attacks in 2023, with public and non-profit institutions among the most affected. Many of these organisations, she said, operate with zero security budget and outdated systems.
“This is why Google.org has committed a grant to support the launch of Resilio Africa,” she said.
Introducing the programme in detail, Cybersafe Foundation Programmes Lead, Success Tawo, said the initiative is built to meet institutions “where they are” and not impose one-size-fits-all solutions.
“Resilio Africa is a project dedicated to helping critical community institutions just like yourself,” she said. “The goal is not perfection. The goal is risk reduction, stronger systems and long-term resilience.”
Tawo said participating organisations will receive cybersecurity health checks, phishing simulations, staff training, incident response playbooks, real-time threat intelligence and access to a regional support network.
She stressed that the programme aims to help protect the records of at least two million people across the four participating countries and build a community of institutions that can share information and support each other.
“We are protecting 200 organisations, which means you have access to 199 other organisations that are similarly positioned like you,” she said.
A panel discussion followed, focusing on shared responsibility between governments, technology partners and community institutions.
Panellists included Gbolabo Awelewa, chief business officer at Essentry; Joylynn Kirui, head of Information Security at Prime Bank Africa; Dr Bright Mawudor, founder of CyberGuard Africa; Confidence Osein, founder of Internet Safe Kids Africa; and Juliet Ohahuru-Obiora, executive director of the Action Against Child Sexual Abuse Initiative.
Speakers agreed that cyber resilience must be driven from leadership but embedded across entire organisations, from management to frontline staff.
“It doesn’t sit with the experts and it doesn’t sit with any department,” Osein said. “It’s something that is shared across teams.”
The Resilio Africa programme will run for three years, with plans to scale to additional countries subject to funding. Cybersafe Foundation said the initiative is free for participating institutions but stressed that sustainability will depend on continued support.
Applications for eligible organisations are now open in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa.
