The acting Director-General of the Cyber Security Authority (CSA), Divine Selasi Agbeti, has urged businesses across the country to integrate cybersecurity into their core strategies to safeguard the digital economy.
He said effective cybersecurity demanded leadership commitment, collaboration and a culture that prioritised security by design, adding that regulations alone could not protect the nation’s digital space.
Mr Agbeti said this when he addressed a cyber forum in Accra last Thursday.
The forum, which was jointly organised by the CSA and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Ghana in Accra, brought together industry players, cybersecurity professionals, and representatives from the private sector to deliberate on strategies for strengthening the country’s digital resilience.
The forum featured a panel discussion which underscored the need for organisations to move beyond traditional recovery models towards “resilience by design”.
They urged boards and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) to focus on faster detection and containment, rather than mere recovery after a breach.
Panellists highlighted that cyber resilience must involve leadership awareness, realistic crisis simulations, and collaboration with third parties under clear audit rights.
They further stressed incorporating psychological “panic” drills into tabletop exercises to test decision-making under pressure.
On Artificial Intelligence (AI), the speakers warned that AI risks were primarily governance issues, which demanded transparency, ethical standards, and board-level oversight.
Industry partnership
Mr Agbeti said while the nation had made significant progress in building a resilient cybersecurity ecosystem through the implementation of the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038), regulation must be complemented by proactive industry engagement and the leadership of the private sector.
“The private sector holds vast digital infrastructure, customer data, and platforms that the public depends on daily.
A breach in any of these systems can cascade into national economic disruption.
Your responsibility extends beyond corporate boundaries — it is part of the national security architecture,” he said.
Mr Agbeti expressed grave concern about the capacities of CISO’s in many organisations, who he said were not fully empowered and described them as “ceremonial CISOs” who often lacked decision-making authority.
The CSA D-G, therefore, called for structural reforms to ensure that CISOs were part of strategic leadership teams.
Losses
He said between January and September this year, the CSA recorded cyber incidents resulting in financial losses of more than GH¢19 million, mainly through online fraud, blackmail, and unauthorised access.
He, however, reaffirmed the authority’s commitment to strengthening the county’s digital resilience through enhanced threat intelligence sharing, public awareness campaigns, and continuous review of regulations to address emerging threats.
He urged stakeholders to move beyond dialogue to action, adding that “Cybersecurity is not a competitive advantage but a collective resilience capability”.
A Senior Partner and Ghana’s Country Director, PWC, Vish Ashiagbor, for his part, said a global survey highlighted a continuing gap between the appreciation of cyber risks by business leaders and the level of preparedness within organisations.
He observed that while cybersecurity was often treated as an Information Technology (IT) issue, it should be a boardroom conversation given its strategic implications.
Mr Ashiagbor said regulation still lagged behind emerging threats, and that skills shortages remained a major challenge, particularly in Africa.
