Fraud & Trust: How to Build an Integrated Security Strategy in Customer Journeys

The accelerated digital transformation of the African banking sector is opening unprecedented perspectives in terms of inclusion, customer experience, and innovation. However, this dynamic comes with a spectacular rise in digital fraud, revealing a strategic paradox: the more customer journeys become digitalized, the more banks become vulnerable to cyberthreats that are increasingly automated, sophisticated, and powered by AI.

Fraud & Trust thus becomes the new field of strategic balance: how can seamless and omnichannel experiences be ensured while tightening security? How can customer trust be preserved in a context where deepfake attacks, localized phishing, SIM-swap and BEC are exploding? How can technology, governance and human factors be aligned in an African environment where the rise of mobile money and evolving BCEAO/BAM regulations constantly redefine expectations?

Several structuring questions emerge, which will guide this article:

How can African banks integrate security from the design phase of customer journeys to counter AI-generated threats?

How can Fraud & Trust strategies be adapted to African specificities: mobile-first, regulatory diversity, financial inclusion, VSLA, dependence on cash?

Which technological, human and process pillars enable the construction of truly integrated and proactive security?

What lessons can be drawn from 2024-2025 figures in the region?

In the rapidly digitalizing African banking landscape, fraud and customer trust represent a major challenge. With the rise of mobile applications and digital financial services, banks face an explosion of cyberattacks, where losses linked to digital fraud jumped by 86% in South Africa in 2024, reaching nearly 1.9 billion rands (around USD 100 million). According to the Microsoft Digital Defense 2025 report, the total value of cybercrime in Africa tripled, rising from USD 192 million in 2024 to USD 484 million in 2025, with victims increasing from 35,000 to 87,000. These numbers highlight the urgency of building an integrated security strategy that protects customer journeys while strengthening trust, an essential pillar for loyalty in a context where 65% of digital fraud affects banking applications.

Fraud Trends in Africa

Recent statistics from Banks & Bankers reveal an alarming escalation of banking fraud in Africa. In 2024, digital fraud incidents in South Africa increased by 86%, totaling 98,000 cases for 1.888 billion rands in losses, of which 1.2 billion were linked to mobile apps, representing 65% of cases. The IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2024 report indicates that the South African financial sector suffers the most expensive breaches at 75.31 million rands, with an average lifecycle of 227 days for identification and containment. Microsoft notes an explosion of cybercrime to USD 484 million in 2025, driven by data theft (80% of incidents), with BEC causing 21% of successful attacks despite only representing 2% of observed threats.

These data highlight the vulnerability of mobile customer journeys, amplified by fraudsters’ AI (localized phishing, deepfakes). In Africa, where cash still dominates 90% of transactions but fintech is booming, the gap between digital transformation and cybersecurity worsens risks.

Recommendation: Nexfing advises adopting a zero-trust approach from risk assessment, prioritizing AI for behavioral detection, which reduced breach costs by 19 million rands for early adopters according to IBM.

Technological Pillars of an Integrated Strategy

An integrated security strategy begins with AI and automation. Gartner forecasts a 14% increase in MENA-Africa security spending, reaching USD 3.3 billion in 2025, driven by generative AI in SBCP (Security Behavior and Culture Programs), reducing human incidents by 40% by 2026. In Africa, the cybersecurity market grows at 20.43% CAGR to reach USD 25.79 billion by 2033, with BFSI at 26.4% of investments in 2024 to counter phishing and SIM-swap. IBM reports that advanced AI accelerates detection by 88 days.

In African customer journeys, where smartphones are the main channel, integrating AI for transactional analysis is crucial against the 12.6 million web attacks in Morocco in 2024.
Recommendation: Nexfing recommends implementing biometric MFA and tokenization, aligned with BCEAO standards, to secure 94% of complaints as seen in Nigeria.

Africa underinvests in cybersecurity despite threats; Nexfing recommends platforms like IBM or Microsoft for cloud resilience, avoiding 263-day containment cycles for complex breaches.

Evolution of Fraud Profiles: From Automated Cyberattack to “Internal” and Human Fraud

According to Microsoft’s 2025 report, financially motivated cyberattacks have sharply increased, with ransomware attacks multiplying by 2.75 year over year. Initial access techniques favor social engineering, phishing (email, SMS, voice), identity compromise, or exploitation of vulnerabilities in public-facing applications.

In 2024, according to IBM X-Force report, exploitation of public-facing applications represented 36% of entry vectors, while credential theft (phishing, infostealers) dominated attack impact 46%, followed by data leakage 31% and data theft 15%.

The rise of “phishing-as-a-service” kits, infostealers, massive spam campaigns, and AI-driven attacks such as deepfake, smishing, or quishing further complicates the landscape.

These evolutions highlight two warning signals. First, fraud is no longer only technical or automated: the human dimension – whether a hacker, a malicious insider, or a client manipulated through social engineering – is gaining importance. Second, vectors are numerous and hybrid (public apps, phishing, bots, AI…), making traditional siloed approaches ineffective. Facing these threats requires a holistic strategy combining detection, prevention, risk management and governance — a true “integrated shield.”

Recommendation: From now on, align cybersecurity, fraud, compliance and customer experience teams around a single framework: an integrated security strategy with shared indicators, unified processes, and feedback loops to continuously adjust mechanisms.

Human Dimension and Customer Processes

The human factor remains critical: PwC 2024 notes a rise in cybercrime to 37% in Uganda, behind customer fraud at 40%. The IIA Africa Risk in Focus 2025 ranks cybersecurity and fraud as top risks, with a focus on digital literacy.

Customer journeys integrate trust through secure design (Security by Design); in Africa, poorly digitalized VSLA (Village Savings Groups) increase indebtedness. Nexfing recommends gamified SBCP training, boosting internal detection by 42% as observed at IBM.

Processes include dynamic KYC and real-time monitoring. Operation Red Card (2024-2025) arrested 306 fraudsters in Africa, seizing 1,842 devices.

Local regulations (BAM, BCEAO) require compliance; Nexfing advises continuous auditing to reduce liquidity/fraud risks.

Recommendations :

Nexfing recommends a 5-step strategy:

Assess risks via Africa-adapted NIST frameworks;

Integrate AI/ML for detection 88 days faster;

Deploy zero-trust with biometrics (reducing app-fraud by 65%);

Train through SBCP for 40% fewer human incidents;

Cloud partnerships (SaaS/PaaS) compliant with BCEAO.
Prioritize ROI: AI saves USD 1 million globally.

Why an Integrated “Fraud & Trust” Approach Is Essential and the Limits of Silos

Traditional Silos = Blind Spots

Historically, many banks (and financial institutions) separated responsibilities:

Cybersecurity teams focused on protecting infrastructures, networks, servers, access.

Fraud / compliance / KYC / AML teams focused on suspicious transactions, regulatory controls, post-transaction monitoring.

Customer experience / digital teams often operated independently, focusing on UX, speed, and simplicity.

This fragmentation creates “blind spots”: fraud signals emerge from customer experience or application logs but do not reach detection tools, or teams react too late, when damage is already done.

Mastercard’s report highlights that without intelligence sharing between cybersecurity and fraud teams, early signals are lost: prevention intervenes only after the fact, once the customer is already impacted.

Customer Trust & Digital Adoption: a Strategic Imperative

In an African context, trust is key: many users are experiencing digital banking services for the first time. A single fraud incident can seriously damage trust, slowing adoption, financial inclusion, and loyalty.

Security must therefore not be “a necessary evil” but a differentiating argument, a trust factor, a lever of growth and reputation. An integrated security strategy aligns operational security + fraud prevention + secure customer experience + governance.

Scalability & Adaptability: The Challenge of a Rapidly Changing Threat Landscape

With the arrival (and democratization) of AI, used both by institutions for detection and by fraudsters for attacks (deepfakes, automated phishing, intelligent bots), the threat-defense landscape is evolving rapidly. Static or rigid methods become obsolete.

Without a flexible security architecture capable of learning, adapting and reacting in near real time, banks risk falling behind, exposing customers and reputation.

Components of an Integrated Security Strategy: What Tomorrow’s “Shield” Looks Like

Governance & Organizational Alignment

A transversal “Fraud & Security Risk” committee: bringing together CIO/CTO, CISO, Risk & Compliance, Customer Experience Lead, Operations/Support, and possibly a business representative (digital or innovation director).

Common policies, shared indicators: fraud KPIs, incidents, blocked attempts, false-positive rates, customer disengagement, response time, etc. The idea is to measure both security and customer experience to avoid overly restrictive measures harming adoption.

Feedback loop & continuous improvement: each incident must be analyzed, documented, and used to adjust rules, scenarios, processes (MFA, workflow, monitoring, alerts).

Recommendation: Without centralized and transversal governance, initiatives remain isolated, incoherent, and fragile. Nexfing recommends structuring this framework today and integrating fraud management at the heart of IT/digital transformation governance.

Technology & Architecture: Detection, Authentication, Supervision

Strong and multifactor authentication (MFA / biometrics / cryptography): essential for sensitive journeys (account creation, transactions, profile changes, password reset). Phishing or credential theft attacks, often automated, can be neutralized. Recent research shows that MFA combined with biometrics remains one of the most effective mechanisms.

Behavioral detection & fraud-risk scoring: similar to methods proposed in a 2025 study on card fraud detection, analyzing transaction patterns (volume, frequency, location, merchant type, timing) to detect anomalies.

Continuous monitoring & integrated Threat Intelligence: exploiting logs (servers, APIs, applications), event correlation, real-time alerts, threat intelligence feeds (phishing, malware, botnets, etc.). IBM X-Force 2025 highlights the rise of massive phishing campaigns, infostealers, and the importance of monitoring public-facing vectors (APIs, web apps).

Segmentation & access privilege zoning: avoid broad access rights (root, admin) used for sensitive transactions. Apply least privilege, segment access based on context (transaction, back-office, support).

Orchestration & automation (SOAR, SIEM, automated response): to quickly detect incidents, block suspicious transactions, isolate sessions or accounts, and alert relevant teams or trigger manual verification.

Recommendation: Relying only on firewalls or perimeter security is insufficient. A modern “security-by-design” architecture is needed, able to monitor continuously, correlate, and react automatically. Nexfing recommends integrating security controls (authentication, detection, scoring) from the design phase of customer journeys, especially digital ones.

Processes & Incident Management

Adaptive validation & verification workflows: e.g., trigger manual verification or strengthened authentication when fraud scoring exceeds a threshold.

Alert management & escalation processes: alerts must be categorized, prioritized, tracked, documented with escalation owners, SLAs, and systematic feedback.

Post-incident analytics & reconciliation: analyze false positives, errors, emerging trends to adjust scoring, rules, thresholds.

Continuous training & awareness for teams and customers: phishing, social engineering, SIM-swap, etc. Customers (and employees) must be trained and aware of risks, especially in Africa where cybersecurity culture may be less mature. Often, the user remains the weakest link.

Recommendation : Processes are the glue connecting technology and governance. Without clear workflows, responsiveness, and feedback loops, even the best tools remain ineffective.

Nexfing recommends integrating processes from the launch of digital services, with trained teams and performance/security KPIs.

General Best Practices for Banks & Financial Institutions in Africa

Prioritize strong authentication (MFA, biometrics) across all digital channels, including mobile.

Implement continuous monitoring of transactions and user behavior, with scoring and anomaly detection.

Explicitly integrate fraud prevention into IT/security/transformation governance.

Regularly raise awareness among clients (and agents), phishing, deepfakes, SIM-swap, with messages adapted to the local context.

Apply security from the design stage (“security-by-design”) of digital journeys, during development and production phases.

Ensure compliance with local regulation while anticipating international standards reinforcing trust from clients, partners, and investors.

Monitor and audit the entire ecosystem: fintechs, providers, agents, external partners breaches often arise from interconnections.

Implement feedback loops, post-incident analysis, continuous adjustments: threats evolve, defenses must adapt.

To build an integrated security strategy, African banks must merge technology, human factors and processes within customer journeys, shifting from reactive to proactive defense. The 2024-2025 statistics prove that AI and zero-trust reduce costs and cycles, restoring essential trust for the 90% cash-to-digital landscape.

How Does Nexfing Transform Fraud into an Opportunity for Trust?

Nexfing excels in AI-ERP-Cloud integration for African banks, offering cybersecurity audits, zero-trust implementations and predictive analytics aligned with BAM/BCEAO, with proven ROI through 40-80% fraud reduction for clients. Our IT-fintech expertise, shaped by IBM/Microsoft/Deloitte insights, secures your mobile customer journeys.

Contact Nexfing today for a free diagnostic

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