Nigeria has adopted a multi-stakeholder strategic framework for implementing its national cyber security policy in relation to cybercrime.
The framework was adopted at a workshop organised by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) recently in Abuja, in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Addressing participants at the event, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, minister of communications, said “this national cybercrime workshop provides a unique opportunity for relevant stakeholders in the cyberspace industry to leverage the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation’s competence and experience to design Nigeria’s work of developing human and institutional capacity on cybercrime.”
The aims of the workshop were to increase the awareness of ICT and cyberspace stakeholders on the need and possible strategies for combating and defeating cybercrime in all its ramifications; improve the capacity of relevant ICT and cyberspace stakeholders for the training and support of cyber-security officials; share cyber-security best practices from across the globe; build capacity for local law enforcement in cybercrime prevention; and showcase effective strategies for drawing on the telecommunications sector to tackle cybercrime.
“When policy is in place, it will be the official driving force for the practical development of human and institutional capacities as tools for national development,” Shittu concluded.
Explaining the focus on telecommunications at the event, Shola Taylor, Secretary-General of the CTO said “the telecommunications sector is the primary stakeholder group of the CTO. By itself, it can contribute significantly to tackling cybercrime as this event will demonstrate, and I would like to congratulate Nigeria’s Ministry of Communications and the Nigerian Communications Commission for making it happen, and the CTO is ready to support Nigeria in this effort.”
The Abuja workshop was part of a series of national cyber-security awareness and capacity building programmes organised by the CTO, including regional workshops on critical information infrastructure protection held in the Pacific, South Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. The CTO is also advising a number of its member countries on cyber-security policies and strategies.
About 160 participants who attended the event were drawn from government departments and agencies, fixed and mobile operators, civil society, academic institutions as well as regional organisations, including ECOWAS.
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