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N3.133trn Lost Annually to Cyber-Crime In Nigeria — NITDA DG

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The National Information Technology Development Agency(NITDA), disclosed that Nigeria loses about N3.133 trillion to cybercrime and foreign software annually. Dr Isa Aliyu Ibrahim Pantami, Director General of the Agency disclosed this on 18th June 2019 at a stakeholders engagement on Nigerian Software Testing Guidance (NSTG) and the Guidelines for Information Systems Audit (GITA) in Abuja.

 

Pantami added that the Nation also lost N127 billion to cyber-crime annually due to the Nation’s inability to adequately secure information systems.

He emphasized that to guarantee the safe delivery of services, it has become imperative to secure Nigeria’s information system.

In his words "there is urgent need to continually protect the country’s information system from being compromised.

Today, most business processes are carried out electronically, and large amounts of information are stored, processed and transmitted over Information Technology (IT) networks, which means businesses, administrations and citizens depend on proper operations of the information technology used".

The DG, who deplored the huge loss by the country, noted that the indigenous software market in Nigeria loses about $10 billion (N3.06trn) annually to stiff competition from foreign off-the-shelf software used to meet local needs, where indigenous software could have provided the appropriate solutions.

This trend according to Pantami has affected the growth of the local software sector, which is now in excess of $10 billion, if well harnessed.

The importance of software testing cannot be overemphasized in today’s rapidly growing technological environment as the global IT industry may reach $5trillion this year, (2019).

In his recap, Pantami applauded the Federal Governments' effort to revamp the IT sector.

He stressed that, in line with the Government’s effort to ensure that government services go online and digital, NITDA came up with two regulatory guidelines thus, Nigerian Software Testing Guidance (NSTG) and the Guidelines for Information Systems Audit (NSTG) and (GITA), respectively.

These according to the DG, would boost professional inputs of stakeholders with the aim of arriving at a joint and successful implementation of the drafts across the three tiers of Government.

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