Cyber Premier League 2026

Africa faces a shortage of more than 100,000 cybersecurity professionals, but the number that gets counted is only half the story. The continent also needs the people who will build the industry — the founders, the CTOs, the incident-response leads, the trainers of the next generation. The Cyber Premier League (CPL) is SANIFU's answer to both gaps: a national competition that develops technical mastery and the leadership instincts that turn skilled defenders into the people who shape what African cybersecurity becomes.

How the league works

Every team plays through four progressive rounds. Challenges are designed by working practitioners across the African cybersecurity community, not pulled from textbooks — the skills that move you up the table are the skills the industry actually needs, whether you go on to defend a bank, build a startup, or lead a national CERT.

• Round 1 — University qualifiers. Every registered team plays.
• Round 2 — Group Stage Matches .
• Round 3 — Quarter finals. Top 08 teams advance.
• Round 4 — Semi finals. Top 04 teams.
• Round 5 — Grand finale. Top two teams.

In 2026, the CPL vision found its champions.

The 2026 season

76 university teams from across Tanzania Universities (UDSM, UDOM, IFM, ARU, RUCU, KIUT, IAA, ATC, DIT, EASTC, DTU, SUA, Unique Academy & MSICT) competed on the CyberSimba CTF platform over four progressive rounds, defending their standings on a live national league table. The format borrows openly from football — regional zones, tiered divisions, and a national final. Challenges were designed by working practitioners across the African cybersecurity community, so the skills that moved teams up the table are the same skills the industry actually needs — whether graduates go on to defend a bank, build a startup, or lead a national CERT.

The 2026 champions

The national final brought the top four teams together in Dar es Salaam. The results:

• 🥇 First place — University of Dodoma (UDOM). UDOM takes the 2026 CPL trophy, a fully-funded trip to represent Tanzania at GISEC Global 2026 — one of the world's largest cybersecurity conferences, held in Dubai — and INE Security certification globally recognized for every team member.

• 🥈 Second place — Unique Academy. 2,500,000 TZS prize.
• 🥉 Third place — Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT). 1,500,000 TZS prize.
• Fourth place — University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM).

Individual honours

Beyond the team standings, CPL 2026 recognised two individual performances that shaped the season:

• Best Female Captain — Neema Mwendwa (UDSM). Neema led her team to fourth place in the national standings while setting a standard for team leadership that judges cited across the season.
• Best Write-Up — Daniel Mahunda (Unique Academy). Daniel's technical documentation of solved challenges was recognised as the strongest of any competitor — evidence of the kind of clarity and rigour that separates good defenders from great ones.

What every participant took away

Winning teams took home trophies and prizes. But every participant in CPL 2026 - all 76 teams — left the season with a verified challenge transcript: a portfolio of solved problems that lives and travels with them into whatever comes next. A graduate programme. A first job. A company they start themselves.

CPL 2026 was made possible by partners who believe African cybersecurity leadership is worth investing in. Our thanks to: CRDB Bank Plc, NTT Data, Infocus Studio, Simulizi na Sauti, CTF Zone and Swahilies.

What CPL is building

Three features distinguish CPL from a one-off competition:

• Alumni pairing. Universities new to the league each year are paired with CPL alumni from neighbouring schools. Over time, this turns CPL alumni into a distributed leadership network across Tanzanian universities.
• Practitioner-designed challenges. Every problem is written by a working cybersecurity professional — from banks, telcos, government CERT teams, and founder-led security startups. Students meet the people building the industry, not just the people teaching it.
• A permanent record. Every solved challenge feeds a public portfolio that outlives the season and follows students into their careers.

Together, these turn a single season into an ongoing pipeline of practitioners, founders, and leaders East Africa's cybersecurity industry needs.

Partnering for CPL 2027

Registration for CPL 2027 will be announced. As the league grows, so does the opportunity to shape it alongside SANIFU.

We are inviting partners for the 2027 season across three tiers:

• Championship Sponsors underwrite the season, receive naming rights on the league table, and gain first access to the top 50 individual performers — whether for hire, mentorship, or investment.

• Ecosystem Partners contribute prizes, mentorship hours, placement opportunities, or founder programme access.

To discuss partnership for CPL 2027, contact the CPL team at [email protected].

Forum recordings and panel summaries are being prepared for release alongside the 2026 Annual Report.