Kaspersky Africa Profitable, Targets Banks and Governments

In Short

• Kaspersky says its Sub-Saharan Africa business is now profitable.
• The company is targeting larger enterprise customers, including banks, governments, and critical infrastructure operators.
• Kaspersky says Africa sales grew 19% in 2024 and 12% in 2025.

What Happened

Kaspersky says its Africa business is profitable, and it now wants bigger clients across the region. The cybersecurity firm shared the update on the sidelines of GITEX Nigeria in Lagos.

The company plans to expand deeper into banking, government, and critical infrastructure security. Critical infrastructure includes systems like power, telecoms, and national payment rails that economies depend on.

Kaspersky executives said Africa sales rose 12% in 2025, after 19% growth in 2024. They also described Nigeria as the top priority market on the continent.

Beyond Nigeria, Kaspersky listed Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Cameroon as high priority markets. Kenya was rated “very high,” while Uganda and Zambia were described as growth markets.

Kaspersky also pointed to previous public sector work in Africa, including helping build and run Rwanda’s national security operations centre. A security operations centre, or SOC, is a dedicated team and toolset that monitors networks for attacks, like a control room that watches for intruders 24/7.

Why It Matters

More African consumers and businesses are using digital financial services, which increases the number of systems that can be attacked. That includes mobile banking apps, card switches, online portals, and the APIs, meaning software connectors, that link fintechs to banks.

When large institutions get breached, the impact is wider. Outages can disrupt payments, customer data can leak, and public services can stall.

For Kaspersky, moving upmarket usually means longer sales cycles, more compliance reviews, and higher expectations around incident response. But it also means larger, multi-year contracts, and a stronger position in the region’s enterprise security market.