As cybersecurity threats continue to grow in size and seriousness throughout Africa, a new initiative has been launched in Rwanda that aims to build Africa’s cyber resilience.
The International Cybersecurity Community for Africa (ICCA) describes itself as a pan-African cybersecurity community dedicated to strengthening Africa’s cyber resilience through collaboration, capacity building, standards, research, innovation and advocacy across the continent.
It adds that it operates as a community-driven, mission-led organisation delivering high-impact programmes while creating a trusted space for experts and partners to co-create solutions for Africa’s evolving threat landscape.
The initiative certainly addresses a critical issue: African organisations reportedly face an average of 1,848 cyberattacks per week. However, the continent employs fewer than 300,000 cybersecurity professionals against 2.8 million unfilled global positions. With this in mind, ICCA’s founders have set themselves an ambitious goal: to train one million cybersecurity specialists by 2030.
In the coming years ICCA also plans to launch certification programmes and an African Cyber Resilience Index to benchmark national preparedness against cyber threats.
However, it’s fairly early days so far for ICCA, which officially launched in Kigali in Rwanda on the 20th of March 2026. It says it is establishing a pan-African platform aimed at building a united, resilient cybersecurity ecosystem through collaboration, capacity building, and threat intelligence sharing across all 54 African countries.
The immediate aim for the platform is to expand to around 15 African countries by 2027, although it seems that Rwanda is and will remain the centre of the organisation. Indeed, at the launch Marie Grace Niwemukiza, Programme Associate in the Digital Inclusion Council at Rwanda's Ministry of ICT and Innovation, emphasised government commitment to the initiative.
The initiative introduced two key tools. Umurinzi Cyber Threat Intelligence detects compromised credentials on the dark web and alerts targeted organisations. A practical Capture-the-Flag (CTF) system provides simulated attacks to build technical expertise at controlled costs in environments tailored to local realities.
These tools aim to accelerate skills acquisition while improving the operational readiness of African organisations.
As the Techinika website notes, the organisation currently operates with 14 staff members and 98 experts from banks, private sector entities, and public institutions mentoring approximately 600 students across Rwanda and the diaspora including participants in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Russia, China, and Scandinavian countries.
