‘Nigeria needs homegrown cyber security solution’

Eko Innovation Centre, a tech hub in Nigeria, said the country needs a homegrown cyber security solution that understands the challenges of its local environment.

The founder of Eko Innovation Centre, Victor Afolabi, stated this at the Secure Hack 1.0 event, an initiative on cyber security challenges held in Lagos.

Speaking at the event, Afolabi said Nigeria needs a homegrown cybersecurity solution that understands the challenges of its local environment.Head of IT at Seven-Up Bottling Company Limited, Oluwasolape Akinde, and a security expert, Imeh Udofia, gave presentations on ‘Strengthening Cyber Security in Africa’s Emerging Digital Economies’ and ‘Cyber-Physical Security’ respectively.

The hackathon, which was attended by innovators, entrepreneurs and security professionals joining virtually across the world, had over 400 participants in attendance.

The team were split into four different groups to work together for three weeks to create ideas and concepts based on their focus areas, which include cyber security, physical security and biosecurity.

Team Nexa came third in the competition and won N350, 000, while Team Cyber Verse clinched the second place position and won N650, 000.

The overall winner of the competition was Team HealthWaka, which went home with the grand prize of N1,000,000 and an acceleration programme of up to $50,000 equity investment.