Ijeoma Agudosi
Nigeria is said to be losing about $450m (N89.55bn) annually to computer and Internet-related frauds, the consultant to the National Information Technology Development Agency.
Mr. Abdul-Hakeem Ajijola,who made the disclosure at the public sector cybersecurity hands capacity building workshop for IT officers in Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies organised by NITDA in Abuja said the country’s annual losses were equivalent to the value of its booming cement industry.
“As technology becomes increasingly pervasive and our dependency on it grows, our economic losses will grow exponentially unless pre-emptive measures are taken to mitigate and eliminate the capacity of cybercriminals to take advantage of our environment.
“This does not preclude major disruptions by cybercriminals to critical national infrastructure like oil and gas, telecommunications, banking and finance, national security and government,” he said.
He added that the Nigerian Communications Commission indicated that as of September 2015, over 97 million Nigerians used the Internet on a daily basis.
The Acting Director-General, NITDA, Dr. Vincent Olatunji, said Nigeria, like other countries, was facing many challenges such as network design, security and prevention, as well as cyber-attacks as a result of increasing use of the Internet.
He expressed the need for effective security measures to create trust and confidence in our various platforms.