E-Business
Minister Seeks Digitisation of Governance for Transparency, Cost Reduction
Dr Isa Ibrahim Pantami, minister of Communications and Digital Economy, has called on government at all levels to digitise governance processes to reduce cost, enhance efficiency and entrench transparency.
The minister made the call at the end of a four-day 8th Regular Meeting of the National Council on Communications and Digital Economy (NCCDE) held in collaboration with Imo Government in Owerri.
The News Agency of Nigeria reported that the minister was represented by Musa Istifanus, permanent secretary in the Ministry
Patanmi said that the IPPIS was initiated by the Federal Government to reduce the cost of printing payment vouchers, slips and other documents associated with payment of its numerous workforces.
He said that the decision reached at the 8th NCCDE meeting would create great impact on Nigerians in the penetration into broadband for e-learning across the nation.
The minister advised Nigerians to embrace Information Communication Technology (ICT) for effective communication and transmission of ideas.
Earlier, Istifanus had said that the Federal Government, through the ministry, had developed policies and master plan, including Broadband (2020-2025) targeted at covering 90 per cent of Nigerians, irrespective of their locations.
Speaking on the theme “Leveraging Digital Economy Policies and Strategies for Economic Recovery in a COVID-19 Era and Beyond”, he said that with ICT, people could communicate effectively with one another and do their buying and selling online.
Istifanus said that ICT had helped to break the barrier of close contact and overcome the hurdle of COVID-19 pandemic.
Sen. Yakubu Oseni, chairman, Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrime, said ICT was pivotal to the transformation of economies and had accelerated the pace of globalisation and completely impacted on life and work in the society.
Represented by Ayoh Ogon, clerk to the Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrime, Oseni said ICT had made the world a much safer place as the major vehicle for security surveillance and investigation.
He said that ICT had also become the key infrastructure in security and intelligence, education, banking, agriculture, health services, manufacturing, aviation, power generation, marine services, building technology and immigration services, aside others.
Oseni expressed regret that criminal elements around the world had turned the ICT revolution into a nightmare with sophisticated and severity attacks.
Oseni said that the yearly meetings of the national council, the highest advisory body to the government on policies, programmes and strategies on digital technology, had helped, in no small way, in the attainment of numerous objectives of the country in the area of technology.
He said the senate committee had been engaging in activities aimed at addressing the challenges of cybercrime.
Ikechukwu Umeh, the Imo Commissioner for Science and Technology, said the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy was created to facilitate ICT in the transformation agenda of Nigeria in the areas of job creation, economic growth and transparency in governance.
He said it was also to solve the problems of the various aspects of the economy notably education, health, taxation, commerce and industry, agriculture, tourism, transportation, banking, infrastructure development and skills acquisition.
Umeh described communication as key to technological advancement of any developed or developing economy.
He said the state ministry of science and technology had the mandate of developing ICT infrastructure, formulating state ICT policy, automation and re-engineering of government processes and businesses.
“It has, therefore, become imperative that technology must be embraced to enable a digital state that is more efficient, effective, accessible, secure and transparent that meets and serves the needs of individuals, businesses and institutions in the country.
“We firmly believe that ICT is the enabler for e-governance at both state and federal levels to catalyse economic recovery, revenue generation, job creation, security surveillance and service delivery,” he said.
NAN reports that the participants, drawn from across the states of the federation, commended the organisers for convening the event meant to update ICT stakeholders.
They said they had received more information on ICT in the country.
A participant, Sani Mohammed with the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, Niger State, said they had been updated with ICT innovations from different states in the country.
He said one of the innovations was the upgrade from commercial domain name .com to top level domain .gov.ng for organisations and agencies.
“We are in the digital world, but the youth need encouragement from government in terms of capacity building and sponsorship. We commend the Federal and state governments for the efforts put in place for this programme,” he said.
Amaka Eboh, an entrepreneur from Imo, urged youths and women to embrace information technology for a better tomorrow instead of waiting for white colour jobs
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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