Paradigm Initiative (PIN), a pan-African organisation focused on digital rights and inclusion, has released its 2025 Annual Impact Report, highlighting major achievements across Africa and other parts of the Global South.
PIN
The report showed that PIN recorded a consolidated media reach of 3.07 billion in 2025, alongside a digital inclusion reach of 1,830 beneficiaries across five major initiatives.
It also disclosed that the organisation trained 282 stakeholders through cyber law engagements, hosted 55 events, and handled 11 strategic litigation cases, including one landmark privacy ruling.
According to the report, PIN expanded its digital literacy and skills development programmes through its Life Skills, ICTs, Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship (LIFE) Legacy Programme, delivering training across 13 African countries.
The countries include Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia, among others.
The programme targeted young people, women, educators, and underserved communities, with a focus on strengthening digital skills, employability readiness, and online rights awareness.
In addition, PIN said it trained over 250 judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers across Nigeria, Ghana, and Zambia through its Stemming the Tides of Abuse in Nigeria’s Digital System (STANDS) programme and related cyber law trainings.
The organisation said the trainings were beginning to influence judicial and law enforcement practices in participating countries.
Executive Director of PIN, Gbenga Sesan, said 2025 demonstrated what could be achieved through commitment to impactful work despite operational challenges.
“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 said.
The report also examined broader digital rights trends across Africa and the Global South, warning of a widening gap between rapid digital expansion and the protection of fundamental human rights.
According to PIN, 2025 witnessed an increase in vague cybercrime and cybersecurity laws, heightening risks of surveillance, censorship, and disproportionate enforcement.
It added that internet shutdowns, online harassment, and platform restrictions continued to shrink civic space, particularly during elections and periods of political tension.
“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,” Sesan added.
Despite sector-wide challenges, the organisation said 2025 remained a year of sustained impact, supported by its team, sponsors, board members, partners, and supporters across the continent.
PIN reaffirmed its commitment to promoting a rights-based digital future where innovation is balanced with inclusion, safety, privacy, and freedom of expression.
