HackerManPeter/Decentralised-Identities

A short article that dives into decentralised identities, what they are, and it's relevance to Africa # Decentralised Identities and its Relevance in Africa ## Introduction Although largely undigitised, Africa has a problem with cyber-safety, with Africa and Ghana leading in identity fraud cases [[source]](guardian.ng). This article explores the state of affairs of Africa’s digital security and offers a solution. ## The Problem in Africa We face a challenge of over 500 million Africans lacking any form of legal identification [[source]](diplomacy.edu), hence there is an ongoing effort to deploy digital identity solutions. However, the problem with traditional digital identity solutions, in the event of a successful cyber attack, the personal information of thousands and maybe millions of users, would be compromised due to its centralised architecture. According to a survey done in 2022 on countries in the world with the most digitisation, South Africa ranked number 1 in Africa and 66th in the world, while the Republic of Congo ranked last in the world at 117th [[source]](surfshark.com). This reality is evident in our data privacy laws or the lack thereof, as a result, making us even more vulnerable to data breaches and misuse of private information. ## Case Studies ### Data Breaches Across Africa Although the majority of Africa remains to be digitised, the technology sector has grown rapidly in the past 10 years, this has also brought about a rise in security threats. In March of 2023, South Africa suffered about 56 data breaches a month due to over-processing of user’s data [[source]](itweb.co.za). The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), informed the public earlier in the year that it was looking into 17 high-priority data breaches but has received reports of over a thousand [[source]](ht …