Nigeria Loses N127bn to Cybercrime Yearly – NITDA

Nigeria’s Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has revealed that the country loses about N127 billion to cybercrime yearly owing to its inability to properly secure her information system.

NITDA is the official Government body that develops and regulates Information Technology in Nigeria.

Speaking through the Director, e-Government Regulatory Department of the Agency, Dr Vincent Olatunji, the DG noted that the West Africa Nigeria needs adequate guidelines to protect her cyberspace

He made this known yesterday in Abuja during the stakeholders’ engagement for the review of the guidelines for information system audit and software testing

“The Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN), has estimated that Nigeria loses about N127 billion to cybercrimes yearly. This is caused in part by our inability to adequately secure our Information Systems.

“Therefore, securing our information systems is a must if we want to guarantee the safe delivery of our services. The proposed Guidelines for Information Systems audit by the agency is one of the tools to guarantee this safety”, he said

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Speaking further, he said on assumption of office, the agency realised that it did not have any instrument that stipulates a clear process for issuance of regulatory instruments, saying a Rulemaking Process Regulation was therefore issued on January 25, 2019.

The Rulemaking Process is a subsidiary legislation that provides clear procedure for issuance of the agency’s regulatory instruments that involves analytical and critical thinking approach to sure if followed will give the country stakeholders’ friendly, developmental and implementable ICT regulations.

In Nigeria today, several internet assisted crimes known as cybercrimes are committed daily in various forms such as fraudulent electronic mails, pornography, identity theft, hacking, cyber harassment, spamming, Automated Teller Machine spoofing, piracy and phishing.