Telecom
ITSSP Amplifies its Voice on Critical Cyber Security Issues Mitigating smooth ICT Development
The Information Technology Systems and Security Professionals (ITSSP) is set to address critical cyber security issues mitigating smooth development of information security in Nigeria.
Professor Adesina Sodiya, President, Information Technology Systems and Security Professionals (ITSSP) disclosed this on tuesday during a press conference meant to address critical cyber security issues mitigating smooth development of information security in Nigeria.
Sodiya, bemoans business owners for their unwilling to invest in basic security management and control systems, and assumes that the IT department will take care of any security issues that may arise.
He emphasized that it is important for the organisations to understand the nature of threats against their businesses and the impact of a breach on production, finances, intellectual property and reputation.
He said, “Organizations must continuously monitor their networks and have the ability to detect and mitigate intrusions as quickly as possible.
“Every organisation must develop information security policies, procedures and plans; and these need to be updated regularly and enforced to help keep pace with the constantly evolving threat landscape. Human beings are often the weakest link”.
According to Prof. Sodiya, an extremely high proportion of attacks involve social engineering approach.
“Many Nigerians, and even people all over the world, are still increasingly fallen victims of socially engineered attacks.
“In 2016, there are records that financial institutions in Nigeria faced Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS).
“This confirms that online activities are not completely secured.
“Security awareness and training are therefore indispensable.
“Attackers may be using customized attacks, but operating methods typically remain the same.
“Looking ahead at the future, security will probably be established by balancing controls and risks to produce scalable and flexible strategies.
“More persistent internal monitoring and sharing of security intelligence are necessary for a more effective security approach.
“For a security strategy to be workable for the present and the long terms, it is important to look ahead.
“Organizations tend to focus on reacting to security threats rather than being proactive.
“Functioning in this way provides no future growth in the adoption of the security framework.
“It is essential that organizations remain flexible and adaptable to achieve the long term security benefits.
“The organizations current security state, relative to the risk they are willing to take and effective security alignment will determine the achievable desired security posture for the future”.
Vice President of ITSSP, Liberty Echewodoh, highlighted the need to understand that information security in not only about firewalls, antivirus software and passwords.
“Information security is a continuous process that requires modern approaches and persistent management.
Collaborative strategy and efficient practices are required in protecting valuable assets of organisation to achieve major security goals of confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA)”, he said.
Meanwhile, Professor Sodiya, added that in the light of the above, it will then require inter-professional expertise and collaboration from IT Security Experts, Investigation officers, Prosecuting officers, Lawyers, Judges and Courts with enough experience to adjudicate in any judicial resolution that involves e-driven activities.
“It is therefore an enormous task to focus on capacity building and sustainability in an environment that is embracing multi-facet e-services like ours without equal amount of energy geared towards developing necessary structures.
He listed the challenges as:
In financial sector, the enormity of fraudulent activities going on daily as being reported periodically by the Fraud Forum Unit of CBN is alarming.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, the Courts, and Federal Bureau of Statistics cannot provide sufficient data that can mitigate such activities adequately.
Some banks also experienced distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack in the last two years.
More and more individuals and organisations continue to experience different levels and types of cyber-attacks in Nigeria.
It has been forecasted that the next world war will be fought in the cyberspace. How prepared are we?
There is now cold cyber war all over the world.
“Do we have well experience information security experts in various organization?
|What is the level of cyber readiness in various organization?
“Where is IT Security Policy for National, State, Agencies, Higher Institutions of learning, as well as coordinating strategies; Media houses both Print and Electronics are not left out because they currently depend on e-platforms to function effective nowadays”.
In view of the above, ITSSP calls for full Implementation of the Cybercrime Act 2018; “Professional bodies should be included in the Council”, the President said.
“ITSSP calls for efficient and coordinated Computer Emergency Response (CERT).
“The Cyber Security Act that domicile in National Security Adviser’s office should create a civil arm of Cyber Security in executing its mandate like (Computer Emergency Response Team ‘CERT Nigeria’) with the professional agencies such as NITDA, CPN, Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), NBA where civilian population can easily relate, because the NSA is currently being viewed as arm forces affairs only.
“Strong Collaboration with relevant government agencies. In order to effectively curb the menace of cyber criminals in Nigeria, we seek strong collaboration with relevant stakeholders like CBN, NIRA, NCC, NPF, ICPC, EFCC, NITDA, NBA and banking institutions in Nigeria.
“Relevant government security agencies like Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
“There is need for adequate and accurate cybercrime data and statistics in the country.
“The system for realising this should be developed and maintained by ITSSP. ITSSP will develop an intelligent incident handling system.
“Support for capacity building in all areas of Information Security.
“NITDA and other stakeholders should support the development of high level skill in Information Technology.
“Of greatest importance is capacity building in this area, the Cyber Crime Art of 2015 in trying to address this established a fund for such development to be managed by its board.
“As it is now, this fund account is yet to be opened not to talk of collecting fund into it despite the fact that the Board had been in existence for over a year; just like NITDA also set up Information Security Department saddle with responsibility of Cyber Security.
“Civil arm of Cyber security coordination to complement what was done by NSA.
Mr. Rogba Adeoye, ITSSP National Secretary, In his contribution, said that all stakeholders must join and cooperate in fighting the cyber security warfare.
“We need to be proactive and not only reactive. We need to rapidly promote and develop information security in Nigeria”, he said.
Information Technology Systems and Security Professionals (ITSSP) is an information security group of the Nigeria Computer Society, with the major goal of promoting and developing Information Security in Nigeria.
African women remain among the most digitally excluded globally, with smartphone affordability and digital literacy among the key barriers. New data from the 2025 GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report, launched recently, reveals a persistent global gender gap in mobile internet use across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
It further notes that literacy, digital skills, safety, and affordability of data also remain critical barriers. The report highlights that 885 million women across these regions still do not use mobile internet, with nearly 60% of them living in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
While mobile internet is the primary way women in LMICs access the internet, offering critical lifelines to health, education, and financial services, the pace of female adoption has stalled, leaving 235 million fewer women than men connected.
Claire Sibthorpe, head of digital inclusion at GSMA, highlighted that the gender gap had narrowed significantly between 2017 and 2020, but progress flatlined in recent years.
Although 2023 brought a slight improvement, restoring the gap to 15%, 2024 saw minimal change, with the gap settling at 14%.
The disparity is most severe in Sub-Saharan Africa, where women are 29% less likely than men to use mobile internet.
“It’s disheartening that progress in reducing the mobile internet gender gap has stalled. The digital divide is driven by deep-rooted socio-economic and cultural factors that disproportionately impact women,” said Sibthorpe.
GSMA projects that closing the gender gap by 2030 could add $1.3 trillion to GDP across LMICs and deliver $230 billion in revenue to the mobile industry.
The report, funded by the UK FCDO, Sida, and the Gates Foundation, stresses the urgent need for targeted investment and policy action to bridge the digital divide and ensure that no woman is left offline.
“The mobile internet gender gap is not going to close on its own. It is driven by deep-rooted social, economic, and cultural factors that disproportionately impact women,” said Sibthorpe.
Nigeria may bring back a 5per cent excise tax on telecom services, according to the 2024 Finance Bill passed by the Senate last week.
Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, ALTON
The tax would apply to data transmission and voice calls.
First introduced in 2020 under the Mohammadu Buhari administration to widen the tax base, the measure was suspended in 2023 by President Bola Tinubu due to rising inflation.
With the budget under pressure, the government is now considering reinstating it.
Telecom operators warn that the tax would raise service costs and make it harder to close Nigeria’s digital divide, which still leaves more than 40% of the population without internet access.
Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), said the proposal lacks detail and would increase the financial burden on users.
“We’ve had no clarity on how the 5% tax would be implemented, but the burden will fall on the consumer. Telecoms should be treated as a social good, not taxed like luxury items. No one taxes telecoms like this in countries where infrastructure is taken seriously,” he said.
ALTON also noted that operators are already subject to 54 different taxes nationwide.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has not yet received the official version of the bill for review.
Telecom
GSMA Urges Governments to Prioritise Affordable Spectrum Costs to Support Global Digital Growth
The GSMA released its latest ‘Global Spectrum Pricing Report’, highlighting that average spectrum prices have not reduced in line with operator revenues over the last decade — putting significant pressure on their ability to invest in essential network infrastructure.
The report shows that, whilst both consumer prices for mobile services and the average cost of spectrum have fallen, the overall cost burden on mobile network operators (MNOs) has actually risen sharply. Global cumulative spectrum costs now account for 7% of operator revenues, a 63% increase over the past ten years.
Meanwhile, the average revenue generated per megahertz (MHz) of spectrum has declined by 60% over the same period. Although costs per MHz have fallen by up to 75% in some bands since 2014, operators have increased spectrum holdings by 80% over the same period to cope with bandwidth demand, driving up the overall cost.
A gigabyte of data is far more affordable today than ten years ago, with operators experiencing a staggering 96% fall in revenue per GB between 2014 and 2024. However, these falling revenues, when combined with the proportionately high cost of acquiring spectrum, restrict operators’ ability to invest in expanding and improving mobile networks, particularly 4G and 5G. The report shows that higher spectrum costs correlate directly with lower network coverage and reduced mobile speeds, impacting consumers and slowing the development of digital economies worldwide.
Vivek Badrinath, Director General of the GSMA, said: “The mobile industry sits at the heart of the digital economy, enabling services and opportunities that transform lives. But a dollar can only be spent once, and high spectrum costs can choke investment at a time when the need for affordable, reliable connectivity has never been greater. Governments and regulators must prioritise spectrum pricing that reflects market realities and fosters long-term digital growth. By ensuring spectrum is affordable, they can unlock faster network expansion, better service quality, and greater digital inclusion for all of their citizens.”
The Global Spectrum Pricing Report also highlights that public policy choices — such as setting artificially high reserve prices, creating artificial scarcity, and attaching onerous licence obligations — have often contributed to inflated spectrum costs. In some countries, spectrum costs can reach as high as 25% of operator revenues.
The GSMA urges policymakers to adjust spectrum prices in line with current market conditions and the economic realities faced by operators. With nearly 1,000 spectrum licences set to expire worldwide by 2030, upcoming renewals present a critical opportunity to reset pricing policies to drive investment in the next generation of mobile networks.
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