How Nigeria lost N159bn to cybercrime – Shittu

The Minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, yesterday, lamented that Nigeria lost about N159 billion in the last 13 years to cybercrime.

He, however, stated that the Ministry of Communications is leveraging the active support of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO) for building all requisite ICT and cyberspace capacities in Nigeria in line with President Mohammed Buhari’s assertion that ICT is the envisaged bedrock of the government’s change agenda.

Barrister Shittu made this known while declaring open the Commonwealth National Cybercrime Workshop yesterday in Abuja, noting that cyber security is extremely impoHe said: “In the face of rising global insecurity and terrorism in today’s world, the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) is in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Communications to catalyze and develop world class human and institutional capacity cyber security. The obvious take off point for this capacity development is the development of an appropriate national policy. When this 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.”

According to the minister, the workshop will provide a unique opportunity for relevant stakeholders in the cyberspace industry to leverage the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organization competence and experience to design Nigeria’s work of developing human and institutional capacity on cybercrime.