Olatayo Ladipo-Ajai, Regional Manager, West Africa at Infobip Nigeria, explores why secure, customer-centric digital platforms are essential for rebuilding trust in West Africa’s energy sector as providers modernise infrastructure and confront rising cyberthreats.
As West Africa navigates the dual imperatives of expanding energy access and accelerating Digital Transformation, the demand for secure, resilient and citizen-centric power infrastructure has reached a critical point. With cybercrime on the rise across the continent, energy providers must modernise their systems while safeguarding citizen data and maintaining public trust.
Rebuilding digital trust starts with understanding the current landscape, especially within Nigeria’s energy framework. The term ‘energy sector’ is broad, so the focus should be on energy retail and energy service provision, where customer interaction is most direct.
Like banking, energy services are essential and widely used, with both sectors increasingly reliant on digital platforms and exposed to growing cybersecurity risks. Just as banks have built trust through secure, customer-centric systems, energy providers must adopt a similar approach.
In Africa, energy platforms are becoming prime targets for cybercrime and even a single data breach can erode public trust. Security and transparency are no longer negotiable; they are the foundation of sustainable growth. Modernising digital infrastructure is not just about efficiency — it is about creating a trusted environment where customers feel protected and engaged.
To achieve this, energy providers must invest in secure, reliable platforms that safeguard data, improve service delivery and foster strong relationships with users, mirroring the success seen in the financial sector.
Rapid growth and transformation
However, unlike banks or e-commerce platforms, which often have the agility and infrastructure to respond swiftly to emerging threats, the energy sector is still in a phase of rapid growth and transformation. This limits its ability to react quickly, making it particularly vulnerable to a wide range of cyber-risks.
These risks include:
- Phishing and social engineering attacks targeting employees and systems.
- Identity theft and data breaches, often due to internal actors or weak access controls.
- Legacy systems lacking modern security protocols, increasing exposure to malware, ransomware and denial-of-service attacks.
- Inadequate endpoint protection, particularly on end-user devices, which remain common entry points for malicious activity.
Many of these vulnerabilities originate at the retail or consumer-facing level, where compromised devices or poor cybersecurity hygiene can expose core infrastructure. Internally, how the sector safeguards devices, educates employees and enforces compliance plays a critical role in either mitigating or amplifying these risks.
Without a proactive, layered approach to cyber-resilience, the consequences could ripple far beyond operational disruption, impacting trust, reputation and even national security. Measures such as two-factor authentication (2FA) add a vital layer of identity protection within the broader security stack.
Reinforcing trust, accountability and resilience
2FA verifies users through a second factor, often time-based and device-linked, making unauthorised access extremely difficult even if passwords are compromised. It is not just a feature; it is a proactive safeguard that reinforces trust, accountability and resilience across digital environments.
For organisations operating apps or web portals, 2FA integration is now faster and more flexible. Customer engagement platforms and communication service providers offer APIs that integrate seamlessly with existing systems, removing the need for complex on-premises solutions.
By adopting these APIs, organisations can offer 2FA as either an optional feature or a standard component of their service, providing a scalable way to enhance security while maintaining a smooth customer journey.
The customer journey lies at the heart of trust. Secure, multichannel engagement makes this journey smoother, more responsive and reliable. Customers can send secure messages, receive real-time updates and track interactions, increasing transparency and control.
Elevating customer experience
When unexpected activity occurs, instant alerts build awareness and peace of mind. Combined with a full engagement history, this strengthens trust, supports audits and enhances accountability. Secure digital touchpoints do not only protect — they elevate the customer experience.
Looking ahead, the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions will increase demand for detailed monitoring and proactive alerts. As digital services become more personalised, customers will expect seamless, automated experiences, requiring security to evolve beyond traditional 2FA to include biometrics, behavioural triggers and context-aware authentication.
In fast-moving sectors such as utilities, these trends underline the need for robust, embedded cybersecurity frameworks that adapt in real time. The future of customer engagement will be predictive, frictionless and secured by intelligent authentication — designed not just to protect, but to empower.
