As emerging economies, organisations across Africa may face greater security and business risks, and are lagging behind the more first world economies in terms of risk management as organisations across the continent strive to fast-track their digital innovation programmes.

This is according to Perry Hutton, Regional VP – Africa at Fortinet, who notes: “Africa is different and we do face a unique set of challenges as a result. Organisations across Africa are moving to innovate digitally, there’s no question about it. However, there are 55 countries – and therefore 55 different advancement rates – across Africa. In general, however, in Africa we still have far less Internet connectivity across the masses than anywhere else, with less than a third of people having true broadband access. This is behind much of the rest of the world, and is a real challenge to being able to take advantage of what technology has to offer. Reliable power and the cost of Internet access are also challenges experienced across Africa, impacting the pace of digital innovation throughout economies – from financial services, manufacturing and retail, through to healthcare and public service delivery.”