Zimbabwe has drawn a hard line in the sand against a fast-evolving digital enemy that has seen a rise of artificial intelligence-powered fraud.
At the 2026 Cyber Fraud and AI Summit in Nyanga, ICT minister Tatenda Mavetera delivered a stark warning that the same AI technologies driving Zimbabwe’s digital growth are now being weaponised by cybercriminals at alarming speed and rate.
“The same fire that warms our house can also burn it down. Artificial intelligence is that fire,” she said.
The minister’s remarks highlight a growing crisis. Zimbabwe’s digital economy has expanded rapidly, with internet penetration surpassing 80% and mobile money platforms like EcoCash and One Money processing billions of dollars annually.
But this growth has created fertile ground for increasingly sophisticated cybercrime.
Globally, cybercrime is projected to cost more than $10 trillion annually, while Africa loses over $4 billion each year. In Zimbabwe alone, mobile money fraud is estimated to exceed $30 million annually, with phishing and social engineering attacks surging by over 40%.
“We have seen a rise in mobile money scams and phishing attacks targeting our growing digital economy. As we digitise , every new digital door becomes a potential entry point for AI-driven fraud,” stated Mevetera.
Unlike traditional scams, today’s threats are powered by generative AI, deepfakes, and adaptive malware. Fraudsters now deploy AI tools to create highly personalised phishing messages, clone voices, and develop malware that evolves in real time to evade detection.
“Fraudsters use generative AI to craft perfect, personalised messages at scale. They use deepfake voice cloning to impersonate trusted individuals and deploy adaptive malware that rewrites itself to bypass security systems,” Mavetera explained.
The human cost is rising. Victims range from pensioners tricked by cloned voices of loved ones to small businesses losing critical data to intelligent malware.
“The cost of cyber fraud is not just financial,” she said. “It is the erosion of trust in digital systems.”
In response, Zimbabwe is pivoting toward an “AI vs AI” defence strategy, deploying artificial intelligence to detect, predict, and neutralise threats in real time.
“You cannot fight an intelligent machine with a manual rulebook. You must fight AI with AI,” said the minister.
Central to this strategy is the proposed AI Cyber Shield, a national programme aimed at strengthening cybersecurity infrastructure, training 10,000 professionals, and deploying real-time fraud detection systems across financial and telecom sectors.
The government also plans to tighten legislation, criminalising the use of AI tools for fraud, including deepfake generators and synthetic identity systems.
“Penalties will be severe,” Mavetera warned. “We will not allow Zimbabwe to become a safe haven for AI cybercriminals.”
Share
