Curbing criminalities through internet

The interconnections between national security and the economy have grown as globalisation and economic integration have increased over the last decades.

For an open economy like Nigeria, these interconnections manifest themselves both as opportunities and possible threats to national security.


Over the last decade, economic security has become a key strategic priority of the Nigerian government, with the connection between economic security and broader national security made explicit by the current administration and highlighted even more strongly in the government’s economic programmes.

In fact, this week, President Muhammadu Buhari has called for an overhaul of the national strategy on cyber security, urging more emphasis on exploring the internet for economic growth opportunities, enhancement of knowledge and mitigation of crime.


The internet, mobile apps, and information technology are now embedded in societal structures of finance, health, education, and business in many countries throughout the world.
Over three billion people, representing more than 40% of the world population, reportedly use the internet.


The president spoke at the launch of the National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy (NCPS) 2021.
“I urge the National Security Adviser to continue to coordinate the efforts of all stakeholders to ensure that our Internet and cyberspace are used for the enhancement of national security and economic progression,” he said. “I am confident that, together, we can pave the way for the creation of new opportunities to usher Nigeria into a bright future driven by a prosperous cyberspace and digital economy.’’


The president said that the present administration has implemented some policies to deepen use of the internet. These policies, he said, include the National Broadband Plan 2020-2025 in March 2020; National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy 2020-2030; National Identity Programme, Treasury Single Account and Bank Verification Number schemes.


These initiatives, according to the president, tackle many of the economic and security challenges facing Nigeria, improve accountability and transparency in governance and check corruption.
Still, the use of internet, in spite its advantages, has its down side. Like the president said, the development of the internet is accompanied by significant problems such as the rise in threats posed by cybercriminals, online financial fraudsters and cyber terrorists who use the internet for dark purposes.


The internet provides an ideal opportunity for defrauding those who are less technologically advanced or who are enthralled by the technology.
In fact, according to the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj-Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd), in Nigeria, many platforms, including banking, communication and military had come under more threat, with personal information easily distorted and explored, forcing the country to work towards mitigating the “suffocating presence and unpredictable threats’’ of cybercrimes.
Yet the frauds and other financial crime which are perpetrated on the internet are, in principle, no different from those which have been committed over time.


The advantages to the criminal of the internet as against most other media are that there is an opportunity to make vast numbers of cold calls at a cost which borders on the free, the opportunity to create credibility by the use of legitimate imagery from reputable sources and to secure the proceeds of the crime not only anonymously but also in jurisdictions where the pursuit of the offender is difficult.


There is also the fact that the prospective victims have been conditioned to believe that which appears on a computer screen.
Equally, the internet and social media have witnessed a surge for propagation of hate speech, fake news, seditious and treasonable messages, as well as the risks of breaches to personal information and government sensitive data.
The need, therefore, to check abuse of the use of internet cannot be overemphasised and, thankfully, government is proactive, over the past couple of years, in taking steps to ensure progressive use of internet and cyberspace.


Cyber threats are a global risk that governments, the private sector, non-governmental organisations and the global community as a whole must deal with.


In 2014, the National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy was developed, paving way for Nigeria to reach numerous cybersecurity milestones over the years.


And, in order to build on this achievement and reposition Nigeria for enhanced engagement in cyberspace, it became expedient to review the National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy 2014 and develop a comprehensive National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy 2021 for the common good of our country.


According to the president, the National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy 2021 would provide us with platform to effectively confront the dynamic nature of threats in the country’s cyberspace.


The document also enables government to harness the efforts of private sector, academia and industry towards progressive economic and national development.


After all, with digital transformation, internet no longer just supports the business, it is the business. Consider an agricultural company that uses IoT sensors in its fields, fertiliser and sprinkler systems to keep crops fed and watered and airborne drones to monitor it all.
However, cyber resilience should be embedded into the government process to ensure that relevant agencies coordinate responses as situations change.


The risk environment is changing rapidly. A strong approach to managing and evolving risks requires that countries stop treating information risk as a separate activity and, instead, unify their plans for overall digital transformation and security under a single, strategic initiative.
One way to envision what this means is to consider how weather forecasting is used to inform decision-making. In the past, a country’s operational risk teams might consult weather forecasts to coordinate flight logistics.
Now, however, the information teams must also get involved to consider how those same adverse weather conditions might affect, for example, cloud computing data centres.


As the weather example demonstrates, the best way to defend against cybercrime threats is with a structured, enterprise-wide risk management strategy that has well-defined governance and policies.


The ultimate goal is to foster resilience in systems, to allow them to not only withstand natural disasters and malicious attacks, but to carry out mission, critical business operations if and when disaster, in any form, strikes.


Certainly, there are good news and bad news wrapped up in digital transformation efforts and use of new technologies. But a strategic review of how the internet landscape is expanding, and careful preparation for what that means for security agencies, should give Nigeria more than a fighting chance to keep both the bad guys and the bad elements at bay.

Nigerian economy set for stable growth?

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said that the exit of the Nigerian economy from recession indicates its readiness for stable and consistent growth.
She said federal government’s diversification efforts have started yielding dividends while the government vigorously implements the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP).


The minister said exiting recession in the 4th quarter of 2020 was the fastest in time the country did so, pointing out that despite the recession, the country recorded some positives in many sectors of the economy.


“This is one of the shortest-lived recessions we have witnessed in the country, despite the impact of the COVID-19, but I must say that the result of this exit is as a result of the fiscal policies, the monetary policies and the Economic Sustainability Plan that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has been implementing,” she said.


Yet, even without the minister saying so, the exit from recession, without doubt, is a surprise that sends a positive message to the international community, especially the multilateral institutions, rating services and investment banks, that the Nigerian economy is resilient and has capacity to withstand shocks.
This development would, certainly, enhance the country’s credit standing internationally and boost its profile.


The exit will, hopefully, trigger an upward revision in growth forecasts made for Nigeria in 2021 by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Fitch which had projected weak growth rates of 1.5% and 1.7%, respectively.
It is instructive to note that favourable news about any economy can influence increased flow of foreign investments.


But there are other lessons associated with the quick recession exit. Firstly, the Nigerian economy has shown that it can actually survive without the oil sector. The growth rate in Q4 2020 was powered by the non-oil sector which recorded a positive growth of 1.69%, despite a deep contraction in the oil sector by as much as over 19%. Information and communications, agriculture and real estate sectors were among the top performers.
Second lesson is that the agriculture sector remains a game changer, contributing over 24% to real GDP and posting a growth rate of 3.42% from about 1.3% in the previous quarter.
This is remarkable and largely reflects the increased interventions in this area, especially by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). This should be sustained and possibly improved up.


Thirdly, agreed that crude oil output is critical to the oil sector’s performance. However, relatively higher crude oil prices in Q4 2020, the sector’s performance was dismal due largely to the declining trend in average crude oil production from over two million barrels per day in the first quarter of 2020 down to 1.56 million barrels per day in the last quarter.


Going forward, now that the economy has exited recession, Nigeria should focus on achieving strong growth that is inclusive. By implication, more attention should be focused on jobs and reducing the high rate of unemployment and poverty.
This will require, among others, an aggressive approach to increasing food output by facilitating access to credit to farmers and SMEs, collaborating with state governments to address rural infrastructure deficit and comprehensively fight insecurity.

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