Paradigm Initiative’s Role in Shaping Digital Rights Inclusion Across Africa in 2025

Stories by Emma Okonji

Paradigm Initiative (PIN), a Pan‑African organisation, published its 2025 Annual Impact Report, which documents a year of strong organisational performance and continued influence in digital rights and inclusion across Africa and the Global South.

The report examined sector‑wide trends across Africa and the rest of the Global South, showing a growing divide between rapid digital expansion and the safeguarding of human rights, which threatens privacy, freedom of expression, and civic engagement.

In 2025, the report noted a rise in vague cybercrime and cybersecurity legislation, heightening risks of surveillance, censorship, and uneven enforcement. At the same time, internet shutdowns, online harassment, and platform restrictions persisted in several African states, disrupting civic space especially during elections and politically tense periods.

Giving details of the report, Executive Director at PIN, Gbenga Sesan, said:
“Governments accelerated the rollout of digital infrastructure while, in too many cases, sidelining the rights frameworks that should govern it. New cybercrime laws were passed in the dead of night. Internet shutdowns were deployed as tools of political convenience. Journalists, human rights defenders, women, and young people continued to bear the heaviest costs of a digital environment that treats rights as a footnote.”

“Even though 2025 tested that conviction with the threats that accompanied it, digital expansion continued at pace. 2025 was also a year that reminded us of what is possible when people commit to doing much‑needed work well,” Sesan further said.