N159b lost to cyber crime in 13 Years, says Minister

The Federal Government yesterday said not less than N159 billion has been lost to cyber crime in Nigeria in the last 13 years due mainly to Nigerians’ lack of technical knowhow to protect their online products and resources.

Minister of Communication and Technology, Adebayo Shittu made this disclosure while delivering a keynote address at the opening ceremony of a three-day National Computer Science conference tagged “Impacts Of Cyber Security On African Economic Development” put together by the Department of Computer and Information technology, Igbinedion University Okada, Edo state.

He, therefore, stressed the need for tertiary institutions to make ICT courses compulsory at all levels just as entrepreneurial courses were adopted. Shittu said that cyber crimes were on the increase and has impaired the security of the Internet as emerging threats and attacks are being recorded on a daily basis.

He said curbing the menace of cyber crime in the country would be an enormous task but achievable, with the engagement of a range of stakeholders and the academia through coalitions that would work assiduously to reduce the scope and scale of cybercrime. He said a multi stakeholder approach involving government, industry and civil society within the context of African Union convention on cyberspace security and protection of personal data could also act as deterrent to the surging cybercrime which the minister said if not well tackled, could have negative impacts on the economic growth, foreign investment and security in Africa.