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‘International Security confab to offer solutions on security threats, cyber crime’

By Adelowo Adebumiti
21 March 2017   |   3:40 am
Yes. Cyber issues are grabbing more headlines than other security issues at the moment. We have terrorist threat and other things on. Though Nigeria face threat from others sources, cyber crime and 419 are what is in the paper almost everyday.

Cyber attack

Jamie Pearson is the Marketing and Operation Manager, Afrocet Montgomery. It is a joint venture between Afrocet Nigeria and Montgomery International, based in London, United Kingdom. Afrocet Montgomery is the company handling Securex West Africa conference. The conference is a security and public safety event that is put together to serve governments and the private sector in West Africa. Pearson in this Interview with Adelowo Adebumiti, spoke about the conference, security exhibition, security issues and trends in Africa.

What can you tell us about the Securex West Africa conference?
The event this week is the largest collection of security and safety professionals in West Africa. It is made up of global manufacturers in security equipment, supply and services. Alongside that, we have a conference programme, which look at critical infrastructure, oil and gas, counterfeiting, and many other different things that are trending in the sector at the moment. Also, we have a dedicated cyber security summit that is an invitation only full day programme which look at how cyber security which is an issue these days. It will look at how it is affecting banking, organisations, and stopping cyber fraud. We have some speakers coming in from the UK, South Africa as well as Nigeria itself.

Is the conference going to extensively review trends in cyber crime and security?
Yes. Cyber issues are grabbing more headlines than other security issues at the moment. We have terrorist threat and other things on. Though Nigeria face threat from others sources, cyber crime and 419 are what is in the paper almost everyday. This is the legacy that has been happening in Nigeria. So overcoming that thought process that you can’t protect your company, learning how to protect your company from it is important. At the conference, they are going to talk about strategies to overcome insecurity challenges in business and how to protect yourself from it. But apart from that, we have other conferences on mainland security, counterfeiting and everything else like that.

What does the conference hope to achieve?
It is essentially a networking event for security professionals to get together in one place, one time a year to meet their peers and look at issues in security.

How many participants are billed to attend?
We are expecting about 2,500 participants over the three-day period. Once we have these people in the area, we are looking at how it can help organisations in Nigeria benefits from expertise of leading names in the industry. People are going to bring in their experience from other countries as well as talk about how they have changed, adapted or done things differently. How that might be able to help the Nigeria situation. These are people who know what they are talking about. They are going to talk about their experience in the course of their work. These are security managers from security organization and there are looking at new way to adapt to the ever-changing trends in the industry.

How long has Afrocet Montgomery manage Securex West Africa?
Afrocet Montgomery has run the show for 2 years. But the event has been running for seven years now.

What can you tell us about the speakers that are coming?
Generally the speakers are chief security officers from large corporations like Chevron, Halogen security, Huawei, Bulwark Intelligence, and Halliday Finch.

Is the conference going to come out with any report to advise government on tackling security challenges?
We are looking at the policies of government and their approach towards tackling security threats such as the Niger Delta attacks. There is going to be some conversation on how best to police that and whether there is mediation or it should be handle through high-level security initiatives.

For instance, the Deputy Commandant, NSCDC, Lagos, Command is going to give a talk on future training and security in Nigeria. Not precisely on the entire security industry. So we are expecting so much thought process from the government. We are looking at the changes that can be done.

Who are the partners behind Securex West Africa?
We have Halogen security as our logistic partner, KPMG and a couple of other companies. At the event, we are going to witness 14 countries represent by the exhibitors from UK, Germany, Taiwan, China and so on.

Can you tell us about the exhibition that is taking place at the conference?
The exhibitors are manufacturers of security equipments. We have a number of people that are bringing in camera, access control, x-ray body scanners and other paraphelia of security. We have all kinds of security items that people need to kit out their organisations whether it is key card, and machines. So it is an exhibition by manufacturers of key products users need to kit up their organization.

How is the private sector going to benefit from the conference?
A lot of the speakers are from the private sector. A lot of people that will attend the conference are from that sector. They are looking forward to hearing about new products, and listen to leading industry experts. They are looking forward to listening to their colleagues in different organisations and see what they are doing differently.

Is there going to be launch or introduction of new security devices at the event?
A number of the companies attending have said there would be product launches in Nigeria at the conference for the first time. They are going to put their products on display. But they are keeping everything about it secret for now until the exhibition itself. I think the conference is one of the biggest and best programme on security in recent time in terms of the speakers that are coming. It is a high level programme than some of the event you see here in Nigeria.

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