E-Business
Africa: Internet Freedom in a Season of Elections
Digital rights concerns for Africa seem to be on the rise and so does the need to mount guard for its protection and respect across the region.
Chief among these concerns is the wanton disregard for respect for human rights online by the state authorities. This has spurred many civil society actors to demand dialogues from governments and when this fails, seek legal redress on many of these issues.
This is why Paradigm Initiative from Nigeria was in Court on June 28, 2017, to challenge the inaction of the country’s Ministry of Science and Technology towards the freedom of information request sent to it.
The request was made to ascertain claims that the Ministry was to build and launch two satellites capable of snooping on the private details of citizens. The hearing has since been rescheduled for September 29, 2017.
A few weeks from now, important national elections will be held in three demographically important African states. On August 4, Rwandans will be heading to the polls to elect a President. On August 8 and August 23 respectively, Kenyans and Angolans will also choose their President and Prime Minister in eagerly anticipated elections.
Even though Kenya has recently committed to not shutting down the Internet for the upcoming elections, it has become more imperative not to lose guard of shutdowns incidents that are currently sweeping through the continent.
One of such is the perennial case of Ethiopia. According to the Freedom on the Net report for 2016, the country is one of the two ranked as not free in terms of Internet freedom on the continent. This same antecedent was also duly reported in the Digital Rights Report for Africa 2016.
This also follows in the heel of a recent Internet shutdown in the country on May 31, 2017, to prevent exam question leakages. While it is high time governments got more creative on better means of engaging malpractices during exams other than shutting down the Internet, civil society organisations can also step in to fill the gap constantly created by these excuses by coordinating with authorities on smarter ways that do not disrupt Internet activities in many of these countries.
A Ugandan non-governmental organisation, Unwanted Witness has also joined 22 other international organisations to petition the Malian government on the recent Internet shutdown in the country. Many of these Internet violations occur regularly in these countries because they do not seem to be on the radar of many International human rights observers.
This apathy could also be traced to why the reign of impunity is supreme other than the rule of law in many of these countries.
There have also been reports of Internet disruptions in Congo Brazzaville due to an alleged submarine cable cut. Even though there has been widespread information that the disruption coincides with when the government of the country seems to be having a row with major dissenting voices in the country.
Election time in Africa is usually accompanied by digital rights violations – notably Internet and Internet applications shutdowns.
In 2016, five African countries – Chad, Gabon, Gambia, Uganda, and Zambia shut down the Internet/Internet applications during elections. Authorities in a sixth country, Ghana, threatened to shut down social media ahead of the December 2016 elections but were dissuaded from doing so partly because citizens made it clear it would have electoral consequences for the ruling party.
Ahead of the elections, there is much to worry about as plans are already in place to stifle Internet freedom in these countries.
In Rwanda, the government placed restrictions on the use of social media by presidential candidates, a decision which however has been recently reversed. In Angola, policies put in place in 2016 – plans to regulate social media announced by the President in his new year’s speech, and the creation of the “Angolan Social Communications Regulatory Body” to ensure compliance with new media laws, are threats to digital rights during the elections.
In January, the Kenya Communications Agency warned it could shut down the Internet during the elections, and announced the purchase of surveillance equipment for social media and mobile phones.
In March 2017, a court upheld the original court judgment to stop the installation of the mobile phone surveillance system and the last is yet to be heard of this development.
An opportunity has arisen for civil society actors to rally African citizens to uphold digital rights. Evidence from Africa in 2016 showed that the best results in defence of digital rights were obtained when civil society worked with local actors to defend digital rights, rather than waiting for the international community’s intervention through organs such as the United Nations and the African Union. In any case, an intervention by the international community is made more effective by on-going local action by citizens.
In Zimbabwe, despite government shutting down of Whatsapp during the #ZimShutDown2016 protests, citizens found other ways to mobilise to get their voices heard. In our quest to uphold digital rights during this election season, perhaps when we manage to find creative ways to mobilise citizens despite shutdowns like the Zimbabweans did in 2016, or when as seen in Ghana last year, citizens make it clear there will be electoral consequences for Internet shutdowns, real progress will be made.
Babatunde Okunoye and Tomiwa Ilori works as research assistant and program assistant with Paradigm Initiative respectively.
The University of Nigeria (UNN) is set to partner with The Roxettes Group to establish a research and innovation centre focused on artificial intelligence (AI), smart and green mobility, and digital technologies, in a move aimed at strengthening research, entrepreneurship and technology-driven industrial development.
Chairman of The Roxettes Group, Arc. Dr. Kaycee Orji-Kelechi, announced the proposed partnership while delivering his acceptance speech after receiving an Honorary Doctor of Business Administration (Honoris Causa) during the university’s convocation ceremony.
The proposed facility, to be known as the Dr. Kaycee Orji Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Smart/Green Mobility and Digital Innovation, is expected to provide a platform for research, innovation and collaboration between academia and industry, with a focus on developing commercially viable solutions to local and continental challenges.
Orji-Kelechi said the initiative was conceived as a long-term investment in human capital and technological advancement rather than simply another physical infrastructure project.
He said the vision was to position the University of Nigeria among Africa’s leading institutions in artificial intelligence, smart mobility and digital innovation through research, entrepreneurship and technology development.
According to him, the centre will house five specialised laboratories covering artificial intelligence and machine learning, smart and green mobility, robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT), digital finance and financial technology, as well as cloud computing and advanced data centre technologies.
He also announced plans for the proposed Kaycee Orji Founders Innovation Challenge, an annual programme intended to identify, mentor and support innovative ideas from students, researchers and academic staff with the potential to become scalable businesses.
“Every student of this University should know that a great idea conceived in a classroom should have a pathway to becoming a patent, a startup, a global enterprise, and a solution that transforms society,” he said.
Orji-Kelechi disclosed that preliminary conceptual work on the project had commenced, with architectural and engineering designs being prepared by K.KH Contractors Ltd., a subsidiary of The Roxettes Group.
He added that discussions with the university would begin on identifying a suitable site for the project, while a comprehensive proposal containing architectural drawings, engineering designs and an implementation framework would be submitted after completion of the design phase.
Reflecting on his career, Orji-Kelechi said Africa must move beyond consuming innovation to creating it through investment in manufacturing, technology and entrepreneurship.
“We have pursued one simple vision: that Nigeria and Africa must move from consumption to production; from importing innovation to creating it; and from waiting for opportunities to building them,” he said.
He urged graduating students to see their education as a foundation for solving societal challenges through innovation, leadership and enterprise, adding that he remained committed to promoting industrial development, youth empowerment and sustainable economic growth.
The proposed collaboration forms part of broader efforts to strengthen university-industry partnerships, which are increasingly seen as critical to improving research commercialisation, innovation capacity and technology-led economic development in Nigeria.
National Population Commission (NPC) has announced commencement of full digital registration of births and deaths through the VitalReg platform, which became operational nationwide on July 1, 2026.
Chidi Ezeoke, federal commissioner representing Anambra, disclosed this in Awka during a press conference to announce commencement of full digital birth and death registration under the Electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (E-CRVS) system and the marking of World Population Day commemorated every July 11.
He revealed that a total of 131 registration centres had been opened in the 21 local government headquarters and several communities in the state, adding that more centres would be opened later.
Ezeoke described the initiative as a major milestone in Nigeria’s Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) system, to ensure every birth and death in the country was captured through a digitally enabled registration platform.
“It builds on the launch of the E-CRVS system and the inauguration of the National Coordination Committee on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics by President Bola Tinubu on Nov. 8, 2023.
“A total of 4,011 functional registration centres has been established across the 774 LGAs of the federation and the commission iswas working to expand the number to about 8,000.
“In Anambra, 131 registration centres have been opened in the 21 local government headquarters and several communities. More centres had been proposed for the state,” he said.
According to the Commissioner, the VitalReg platform would provide faster registration services, 24-hour online access, digital certificate issuance where applicable, reduced paperwork and waiting time, improved data validation and a more secure national CRVS database.
While noting that the platform would serve as a foundational database to support other national data systems and strengthen interoperability across Nigeria’s digital identity ecosystem, Ezeoke urged Nigerians and other stakeholders to support the initiative by ensuring prompt registration of all births and deaths.
Speaking on the 2026 World Population Day themed, “Realising the Hopes and Aspirations of Young People – Today and for the Future”, the Commissioner called for greater investment in education, healthcare, skills development, decent employment opportunities and youth participation in governance for sustainable national development.
Earlier, Mr Obiakonwa Okagwu, state director, NPC, said the occasion served as a reminder of great opportunities provided to harness young people’s capabilities, which he said would shape the future of the country when adequately harnessed.
He called on residents to take registration of births and deaths as national responsibility, just as he urged the media to take the message on civil registration to all parts of the State.
E-Business
Report Says Cybercriminals Deploy Malware to Hijack Crypto Wallets, Monitor Browsers Telegram
Cybersecurity researchers at Kaspersky have uncovered a sophisticated malware framework, dubbed OkoBot, that is targeting cryptocurrency users by stealing wallet recovery phrases, browser credentials and other sensitive information through a multi-stage attack campaign spanning more than 25 countries.
The researchers said the malware, active since April 2025, employs more than 20 malicious payloads and has evolved into an advanced cybercrime platform focused on compromising digital asset holders. According to Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT), the campaign remains active and has already affected hundreds of users worldwide.
Kaspersky disclosed that one of the framework’s most dangerous components, known as SeedHunter, injects malicious code into legitimate cryptocurrency wallet applications, including Ledger Wallet, Ledger Live and Trezor Suite, before displaying fake recovery phrase prompts designed to trick victims into surrendering their seed phrases.
The security firm explained that once attackers obtain a victim’s recovery phrase, they gain complete control over the cryptocurrency wallet, enabling them to transfer digital assets with virtually no chance of recovery.
Commenting on the discovery, Dmitry Galov, security researcher at Kaspersky’s GReAT, said.
“This campaign has been running for more than a year and remains active. OkoBot is not just a single piece of malware but an extensible framework built primarily to compromise cryptocurrency users.”
Galov added that the malware is continuously maintained and enhanced, underscoring the attackers’ long-term focus on financial theft.
According to Kaspersky, victims are typically infected through ClickFix phishing attacks or malicious GitHub repositories masquerading as legitimate software downloads. In one instance, a fake Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio repository secretly installed a trojanized version of the Audacity audio editor embedded with malicious code.
Following the initial compromise, the attackers deploy a PowerShell downloader called TookPS,which establishes an encrypted SSH connection to attacker-controlled infrastructure.
The malware then harvests browser cookies, wallet files, stored credentials and system information before downloading additional malicious modules.
Among the additional payloads is OkoSpyware which monitors more than 100 applications, which includes cryptocurrency wallets and password managers—records user activity and captures keystrokes and video of application windows. Another module silently installs malicious browser extensions capable of stealing financial information and authentication tokens.
However, Kaspersky’s telemetry indicates that the largest concentrations of victims have been recorded in Brazil, Vietnam, Canada, Mexico and Türkiye, although the malware campaign has spread to users across more than 25 countries.
The cybersecurity firm advised cryptocurrency users never to enter wallet recovery phrases into prompts displayed by desktop applications or websites unless they have independently verified their authenticity.
Furthermore,It also urged users to download wallet software exclusively from official sources, enable multi-layered endpoint protection, and remain cautious of software offered through unofficial repositories or phishing websites.
Kaspersky noted that while hardware wallets themselves remain secure, attackers are increasingly exploiting the software that accompanies them, making user awareness a critical line of defence against evolving cryptocurrency-focused cyber threats.
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