Cameroon is collating and double-checking its cybersecurity legislation to strengthen its bid to officially affiliate to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime.

This Convention is widely regarded as among the most comprehensive and coherent international agreement on cybercrime, and was adopted by the Council of Europe in 2001 and went into effect in July 2004.

The convention is opened to non-European states and to date, eleven African countries have adhered to it.

If Cameroon is accepted, it will have access to a legal framework for international cooperation on cybercrime and electronic evidence. It will also automatically become a member of the Cybercrime Convention Committee; an intergovernmental body dealing with cybercrime.

The country also stands the chance of being prioritised for capacity building programme.

Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Minette Libom Li Likeng said the Budapest Convention will help reinforce local legislation on cybersecurity, notably Law No.2010/012 of 21 December 2010 relating to Cybersecurity and Cyber Criminality in Cameroon.

“This will guarantee a better deployment of ANTIC and the Telecommunications Regulatory Board,” she said.

ANTIC is the National Agency for Information and Communication Technologies.

The Minister said the Convention will help promote a culture of cybersecurity in the country and the fight against cybercrime. “The Budapest Convention will allow the country to benefit from exchange of experience and support from the major hosts. As it stands, if there is a problem, Google, Amazon, Facebook and others cannot cooperate to give us information.”

Cameroon is keen on becoming an emerging digital economy by 2035 but continues to deal with increasing levels of cybercrime.

In 2021 the country lost at least US$10-million to online scamming and phishing, according to ANTIC. A further US$6.2-million loss was registered as a result of skimming, while over US$8-million was lost due to intrusions into the information systems of certain private organisations over the last decade.

Moreover, 33 public administration websites have fallen victim to hackers since 2010.