Africa’s endpoint security market is growing rapidly – and for good reason. Statista projects revenue in this segment to reach US$183.29 million in 2025, rising to US$318.02 million by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.65%. While this figure is modest compared to the United States’ projected US$6.2 billion endpoint security market for 2025, it underscores the fact that African organisations are steadily recognising the endpoint as a critical line of defence.

Despite this growing local investment though, endpoint protection on its own is struggling to keep pace with today’s attackers. Cybercriminals are leveraging AI to generate highly convincing phishing emails and spoofed login pages that appear entirely legitimate. Combined with the rise of cloud services and increased BYOD (bring your own device) practices, the result is an expanding attack surface where traditional endpoint tools operating in isolation simply cannot keep up.

Building strength through layered security

“Endpoints collect telemetry from multiple sources across the network but, on their own, they’re not equipped to handle everything,” explains Kyle Pillay, Security as a Service Manager at Datacentrix, a leading hybrid ICT systems integrator and managed services provider. “They need to be continuously fed with the right threat intelligence and Zero-Day updates. It’s only when endpoint protection forms part of a broader, integrated security ecosystem that it becomes truly effective. This layered approach involves coupling endpoint protection with perimeter security, vulnerability scanning and live intelligence feeds.”

Still, layering more tools isn’t a simple fix. “Stacking security tools can improve protection, but it also introduces complexity,” he says. “That’s why an effective security information and event management (SIEM) platform is essential. It creates a single pane of glass view, providing the benefits of layered protection but allowing teams to monitor and respond from one central dashboard.”

AI and machine learning also play an increasing role here, helping reduce operational complexity while improving detection accuracy and speed.

Visibility and responsiveness are key metrics

When it comes to measuring success, Pillay highlights visibility and responsiveness as key metrics: “You need to know that your endpoints are reachable, patched and visible, and you must track what threats are being detected and how your tools respond. Correlating this data with email and user behaviour provides powerful insights into where awareness or training may be needed.”

Ultimately, he adds, the key is continuous improvement – using retrospective analysis to identify gaps and refine strategy.

And as ransomware and phishing attacks continue to rise in Africa, the cost of not investing in strong endpoint controls has become too high to ignore. The focus of attackers has shifted from infrastructure to users, exploiting human trust to execute malicious actions that bypass technical barriers.

That’s where advanced endpoint controls like Extended Detection and Response (XDR) and application whitelisting come in. XDR analyses running executables and stops suspicious behaviour before it executes, while application control software limits which applications are allowed to run. Both feed telemetry into the SIEM for consolidated visibility.

“Endpoint security today goes far beyond antivirus,” Pillay concludes. “Because the endpoint has become everything – your identity, your network, your storage and your access point – it now must encompass these proactive measures, like XDR, application control and network access control (NAC). With remote work and cloud-based collaboration, all control needs to be anchored around the endpoint.”