E-Business
Digital Rights and Internet Freedom in Nigeria
As Nigeria becomes a more digital-driven nation, it is quite necessary and important for policy makers to come out with the necessary laws that will guaranty the rights of the users and customers, while ensuring that internet remains free for the use of all.
I recently had a chat with Gbenga Sesan, Executive Director, Paradigm Initiatives, and he shared his thoughts on internet security and data privacy in the country.
Giving his reasons for being passionate about Digital Rights, Gbenga said that setting out policy for Digital Rights is quite important to ensure that it does not lag behind or stand in the way of innovation.
He gave the analogy of earlier days when the internet first came, where security officers invade cyber cafes and arrest everyone just to extract money from the users in form of bail with no cybercrime cases to nail them.
There is, therefore, the need to have the policies and laws in place so that security operatives will not take advantage of the loopholes to exploit internet users, thus, truncating innovations.
Gbenga said he will like to see some changes in the cybercrime laws that we have on ground. He stated that there were about thirteen sections of the Cyber Crime Act of 2015 that needed to be reviewed.
The first one, he said, is Section 24, which deals with Cyber Stalking. He said that the definition of Cyber Stalking has to be re-defined because, as it is presently, bloggers and other online writers ate being arrested for expressing their opinion in writing rather than arresting and prosecuting real cyber stalkers. “Not one case if a proper cyber criminal has been taken to court”, he stated.
Gbenga also mentioned Section 38 of the Cyber Crime Act which deals with Data Retention as one that should be reviewed. He maintained that Nigeria has a data privacy problem, especially, in a situation where people sell other people’s email addresses.
He stated that in a situation where about 7 Agencies of government collect biometric data of people, the tendency is for these data to be stolen and used in crime.
He gave the example of a bank that unintentionally leaked the information from a hospital where data of HIV patients were kept and no one is punishing the bank for this. A situation where the taking of BVN without the Privacy laws in place means that, if anything goes wrong with the data, nobody will answer questions.
Gbenga believes that in order to solve these problems, there is the need to continue to engage in this type of conversations to enlighten people because they do not know. He said that many institutions that have been collecting people’s information do not need them.
He also advised people to stop writing their mobile numbers, etc., on any piece of paper that is being passed around to avoid being scammed.
All these, Gbenga stated, need to be codified in the law. He said an Internet Freedom Declaration for Nigeria has been transformed into the Data Privacy draft bill which is already in the National Assembly and this has passed through the first and second reading as well as public hearing. What remains now, he said, is for the committee report. In his opinion, he stated that most of the bad laws are quickly signed into law while good laws are not looked at.
Gbenga said that NIMC is mandated to gather a centralized biometric database of all Nigerians, but this has not been successfully done because many people want want a piece of the action by landing contracts from it.
He hopes that the President or other relevant authority will garner the political will and put their feet down to ensure that this is done.
He also stated that, maybe, by the time some of those in authority lose their data and find out that it is being used in crime in another clime or they lose money, then, they will take this seriously.
Gbenga is of the opinion that it is not possible for us to regulate the internet as some people are calling for because the problem is not with Facebook and the rest of the platforms on the internet. The problem, he identified, is that when crime is committed no one is punished for it, so, people will continue to commit more crimes.
He noted that “yahoo yahoo” crime is not an innovation that came with the internet but was in vogue before the internet came.
People, he stated, were committing “419” crimes via the use if FAX and letters. “We should not say that because water can drown us, we will not take our bath for seven days”, he stated. He also noted that the internet is a tool that can be used by bad and good people just as the sun shines on both good and bad people. We cannot stop the sun from shining on bad people. Gbenga emphasized that we need the internet more in Africa, and in Nigeria in particular, because we have lost out in many of the world’s revolutions, such as the industrial revolution.
He concluded by stating that we need the internet to be relevant in the next revolution, which is the Internet of Things and Internet Innovation.
CFA is the Founder, www.CFAtech.ng & Co-producer/Presenter,Tech Trends on Channels Television
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has launched an investigation into allegations that the confidentiality and integrity of candidates’ personal data may have been compromised by hackers.
The Commission initiated the inquiry following concerns over possible data breaches during examinations.
Preliminary findings indicate that several examination centres may not have implemented adequate technical and organizational measures to safeguard candidates’ personal information, as required under data protection regulations.
Although the incident reportedly affected 379, 997 candidates, the NDPC’s investigation is poised to cover a systemic audit of data processing and third parties.
It will be recalled that JAMB recently admitted that a technical error on its platform affected a total of 379,997 candidates in 157 examination centres across Lagos and the South-East.
Further investigation led to the arrest of at least 20 suspects who are currently in the custody of the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police Force.
Cyber security firm, Kaspersky, has once again warned that sophisticated cybercriminals increasingly target Africa as ransomware and advanced persistent threats (APTs) escalate across the region.
Speaking at the company’s annual Cyber Security Weekend for the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region, the cybersecurity firm’s Global Research and Analysis Team highlighted growing digital threats affecting African nations.
Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa emerged as hotspots, with Kenya recording one of the highest web threat incident rates at 20.1% in first quarter 2025.
“While ransomware is less prevalent in Africa due to lower levels of digitisation and economic constraints, countries like South Africa and Nigeria are seeing a sharp rise in attacks,” said Sergey Lozhkin, head of META and APAC regions at Kaspersky.
Kaspersky noted a 0.01 percentage point increase in African ransomware cases year-on-year, reaching 0.41%, still below global and Middle Eastern averages, but a troubling sign for the continent’s emerging digital infrastructure.
Experts warned that attackers are refining their tactics, shifting focus to unconventional entry points like IoT devices, smart appliances, and misconfigured hardware.
“As these economies expand digitally, sectors such as manufacturing, finance and government are becoming key targets,” said Lozhkin
The cyber-crime landscape is evolving quickly, fuelled by AI tools and dark web access to large language models, which enable less skilled actors to launch convincing phishing and malware campaigns.
Groups like FunkSec, which uses AI-generated code and a low-cost ransom model, are redefining ransomware operations.
“African organisations face the dual challenge of expanding digital footprints and limited cybersecurity awareness. This makes layered defense strategies, including network segmentation, real-time monitoring and regular staff training, essential,” stated Lozhkin
Kaspersky continues to monitor 25 active APT groups in the META region, including SideWinder and MuddyWater, some of which are known to target African institutions.
To bolster defenses, the firm recommends using tools such as its free Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business and the Kaspersky Next suite for threat visibility and response.
Nigeria recently launched a new joint case team to step up its response to cybercrimes that affect people and businesses at home and abroad.
The ‘Joint Case Team on Cybercrime’ brings together Nigeria’s key justice and security agencies to work as one, making it easier to detect, investigate, and prosecute digital offences.
It is supported by the UK National Crime Agency, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and the Commonwealth Secretariat, as part of a wider effort to promote international cooperation on cybercrime.
Speaking at the launch in Abuja, Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN, minister of justice and attorney general of the federation described the initiative as “a bold and transformative stride in Nigeria’s justice system.”
He said that although Nigeria has a national legal framework to address cyber offences, laws alone are not enough.
Nigeria is among the countries most affected by cybercrime around the world, with increasing financial losses.
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