By Olabisi Olaleye

Stakeholders who gathered at this year’s edition of the African Digital Awards (ADA) have expressed concerns over the N127 billion estimated annual economic losses to rising wave of cybercrimes in the country with a view to finding measures to curb the trend.

Speaking at the forum, Minister of Communications, Mr. , noted that within a short period of time, Internet had evolved from being a simple tool for accessing information and conducting communication and commerce to becoming a significant venue for social activity and interaction.

And while this means better and more convenient services and a boost to the economy, it has also created avenues for cyber-attacks and criminal activities that could cripple or destabilise the national system.

He said, “As the world increasingly depends on technology and the cyberspace, especially increasing access to broadband for daily businesses, it gets more and more insecure.”

Yearly, he said, thousands of cybersecurity problems are identified in cyberspace and technologies from known and unknown global actors, leaving Internet users vulnerable.

Shittu said cybercrime poses a huge obstacle to the country’s digital transformation agenda, stressing that the Federal Government has estimated an annual loss of over N127 billion to cybercrime activities in the nation.

According to him, “Nigeria has had its fair share of cybercrimes between 2016 and 2017 alone; the recession in 2016 brought about numerous attacks targeted at organisations and individuals.

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“In the wave of austerity, many people lost money to (Ponzi) schemes carried out through cyber platforms and others fell victim to malicious and compromising websites.”

In the electronic payment space, data from the Nigerian Inter-bank Settlement Systems Plc (NIBSS) showed that, in the first quarter of this year, over N374 million was lost to electronic fraud.

The stakeholders at the forum, including the Ministry of Communications, Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Nigerian Communication Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), MTN, MainOne, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), among others, were in agreement that Nigeria needed to develop a strategy backed with thorough implementation of the Cybercrime Act, 2015, towards curbing online economic losses.

According to them, in Nigeria and other countries around the world, the Internet has become an integral part of everyday life and has become a key development index, whose measurement is taken by development-oriented organisations and agencies.

While noting that there was no doubt about the positive impact of the Internet and its peripheral technologies in enhancing people’s daily lives, they were also of the ciew that the Internet has brought about the advent of cybercrimes, which are now threatening the socio-economic landscape of people across the globe.

Meanwhile, Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, explained that development of a regulatory framework for broadband penetration, licensing of infrastructure service providers, issuance of wireless broadband licence and the offering of more wireless broadband frequency and services are part of the commission’s efforts towards ensuring deeper broadband access; the NCC has been collaborating with stakeholders in order to work together to also tackle cybercrime.

“For instance, the commission, among others, is partnering with the ITU to establish in Nigeria a Regional Cybersecurity Centre (RCC) for Africa,” Danbatta said. ‘The centre, which will be sited in Abuja, will provide support in the area of technical manpower training, information sharing and other collaborative roles with local Computer Security Incidence Response Team (CESIRT).”