The Federal Government in Nigeria has been urged by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO) to reverse the $200m annual economic loss accrued by the country. This appeal comes as a result of high rate of cyber crime in Nigeria.
Prof. Tim Unwin, the Chief Executive Officer of CTO, recalled that an Earnest & Young investigation had revealed that the cost of cyber crimes to the Nigerian economy was around $200m.
He said this while presenting a paper at the National Stakeholders’ Consultative Forum on 2013 – 2017 Strategic Management Plan recently in Lagos.
In addition to the direct cost of cyber crime, Unwin said the reputational cost to the country could not be underestimated.
He advised the federal government to set the legal and regulatory frameworks to minimize cyber crimes adding that the Nigerian Communications Commission had a very critical role to play in this.
According to him, cyber security had become a key area of intervention by ICT regulators especially due to the serious impact it had on today’s communication infrastructure.
The CTO boss noted that setting up and operating cyber security frameworks required the engagement of a range of stakeholders in public and private sectors adding that the NCC’s potential and necessary role could not be overstressed.
He further explained that a robust and resilient cyber security framework that Nigeria could adopt would cover three main facets such as critical information infrastructure protection, cyber crime and child protection online.
Segun Adekoye
