Interpol’s African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026 revealed Artificial intelligence is driving 55 percent of reported cybercrimes across Africa, enabling attacks to become faster, more sophisticated and harder for victims and digital platforms to detect.

The report, released on Monday, also identified significant data breach incidents in South Sudan, South Africa, Nigeria and Namibia between January 2024 and September 2025.

Ransomware incidents were similarly prevalent across South Africa, Nigeria, Namibia, Senegal, and Zambia, with attackers increasingly targeting healthcare institutions, utility providers, and public service portals to maximise disruption and extortion potential.

The 40-page report relied on survey data from 36 African countries.

Business email compromise (BEC) involves attackers tricking workers into sending money or private data by pretending to be bosses or trusted partners.

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Director -General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has positioned Delta State, as Nigeria’s next great industrial hub after Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt.

Okonjo-Iweala expressed the conviction in a keynote address, she delivered during the state’s on-going economic and investment summit in Asaba.

Speaking at the summit, Okonjo-Iweala emphasised that Delta State had the potential to become Nigeria’s next great industrial hub, standing alongside Lagos, Kano, and Port Harcourt, as an engine of the national economy.

Okonjo-Iweala said: “This would be good for Nigeria as a whole. It would help decongest some of our economic hubs like Lagos and Kano that are becoming overcrowded. Lagos alone accounts for about a quarter of Nigeria’s GDP and half of its non-oil GDP.“

Consider Delta’s natural, infrastructural, and human endowments. We’ve heard about them. Abundant natural gas, a coastline with seaports at Warri, Sapele, Burutu, and Asaba.

The Itape-Ajaokuta-Wari rail line. The fertile land of Delta State, solid minerals, 49 tertiary institutions producing young people who want opportunities in the state where they grew up.

”Okonjo-Iweala said, “On the financial front, the state also has some fiscal space. Budget 2025 State of States report ranked Delta 6th of 35 states in overall fiscal performance and 2nd in debt sustainability. I was very happy about that. And when I heard one of the speakers say, you’re not going to borrow, I was smiling. Keep the fiscal prudence because without it, you’re not going to be able to build the Delta State we want.

“If you have to deploy resources, you have to deploy them in a manner that makes the state productive, not wasteful.

The 2025 proposed budget of N1.66 trillion prioritises increased capital expenditure as part of the efforts to move Delta onto a higher growth path.

A stable macro-economic environment at the federal level, exchange rate management, bringing down inflationary pressures, would improve state’s prospects for success.”

US President Donald Trump has criticised ExxonMobil and Chevron for making what he described as excessive profits and demanded they lower petrol prices for consumers.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump said he was unhappy that both companies had benefited from higher fuel prices following strong second-quarter earnings driven by elevated oil prices during the Iran war.

“I don’t like it,” .“Chevron, too much money. ExxonMobil, too much. Too much money,”Trump told reporters on Monday.

Trump has often used public criticism to influence major companies. During his first term, he pressed automakers to keep production in the US, criticised defence contractors over costs and called on pharmaceutical companies to reduce drug prices.

Since returning to office, he has continued using the presidency to pressure companies without always relying on formal government action.