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
Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, minister of Interior, has announced the launch of an Online Visa Approval Center to eliminate bureaucratic bottlenecks and reduce corruption in the visa application process.
Commissioned by the President in December, the new system ensures that applicants no longer need to visit a visa office, know anyone in the system, or lobby for approvals.
At a stakeholders’ sensitisation workshop on the implementation of the Nigeria Visa Policy (NVP) 2025, yesterday in Abuja, Dr. Tunji-Ojo said the visa is considered a very important document by the government because it is an instrument of migration management and an instrument of economic development.
The minister explained that Nigeria has to strike a delicate balance between national security and, of course, the ease of migration.
“And we think that it’s something that we can do and something we will do.
“We don’t have a physical Visa Approval Center. If you apply for a Nigerian visa anywhere in the world, you do so online. We process it here in Nigeria, and if approved, you receive your e-visa in your email,” he explained.
To enhance efficiency, the government has set a 48-hour deadline for processing e-visas.
“It is unprofessional and unacceptable for the Nigeria Immigration Service not to approve or provide feedback within 48 hours,” the minister stated.
“It breaks my heart that people need to lobby to even get visas to Nigeria. It shouldn’t be so. It shouldn’t be.
“For anybody that is qualified, for anybody that wants to do legitimate activities in Nigeria, such people should be able to come to Nigeria easily. And this is why we are opening our space. Mr. President is interested in foreign direct investments.”
Further, he said Nigeria is interested in partnering with the rest of the world to develop its economy but, “We can’t do that when we allow bottlenecks to hold us down. So these reforms, basically, are aimed at opening our space, enhancing national security, and we hope that the primary responsibilities of the visa scheme will be achieved.”
Kemi Nandap, controller general, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), said the NIS would fully digitize its e-visa platform and reduce visa classifications from 79 to 44 to enhance accessibility, transparency, and efficiency in the new visa policy.
She said, “At the core of this policy is the new e-visa platform—a fully digitized, centralized system that revolutionizes how foreign nationals interact with our country’s entry procedures. As part of this transformation, the Nigerian Visa Policy 2024 underwent a comprehensive review, resulting in a significant reduction in visa classifications from 79 to 44.
“These categories have been logically grouped to simplify procedures, reduce complexities, and greatly improve the user experience. Importantly, we have maintained the original purpose and intent of each visa class throughout this reform.”
Mr. Takao Shimokawa, director general, Economic Development Department at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has visited the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to discuss the forthcoming launch of the Nigeria-Japan Startup Hub Project.
Mr. Dejo Olawunmi, director of IT Infrastructure Solutions at NITDA and Mr. Takao Shimokawa, director general, Economic Development Department at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
This is in a strategic move to strengthen Nigeria’s startup ecosystem.
During his visit, Mr. Shimokawa was received by Mr. Dejo Olawunmi, director of IT Infrastructure Solutions at NITDA.
Their discussions focused on advancing technological innovation, fostering entrepreneurship, and enhancing venture capital development to support early-stage startups in Nigeria.
The Nigeria-Japan Startup Hub Project is designed to provide Nigerian startups with access to Japanese expertise, mentorship, and investment opportunities.
The initiative aims to create a collaborative environment where local entrepreneurs can scale their businesses by leveraging Japan’s advanced technology and business models.
By bridging Nigerian startups with Japanese investors and industry leaders, the project seeks to drive sustainable growth and innovation in Nigeria’s tech industry.
This partnership underscores the increasing economic and technological cooperation between the two nations, positioning Nigeria as a key player in the global startup landscape.
With the hub set to launch soon, stakeholders anticipate that it will provide critical resources for startups, enabling them to compete in the global market and contribute to Nigeria’s digital economy.
Kaspersky has identified and helped patch a sophisticated zero-day vulnerability in Google Chrome (CVE-2025-2783) that allowed attackers to bypass the browser’s sandbox protection system.
The exploit, discovered by Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT), required no user interaction beyond clicking a malicious link and demonstrated exceptional technical complexity. Kaspersky researchers have been acknowledged by Google for discovering and reporting this vulnerability.
In mid-March 2025, Kaspersky detected a wave of infections triggered when users clicked personalised phishing links delivered via email. After clicking, no additional action was needed to compromise their systems.
Once Kaspersky’s analysis confirmed that the exploit leveraged a previously unknown vulnerability in the latest version of Google Chrome, Kaspersky swiftly alerted Google’s security team. A security patch for the vulnerability was released on March 25, 2025.
Kaspersky researchers dubbed the campaign “Operation ForumTroll”, as attackers sent personalised phishing emails inviting recipients to the “Primakov Readings” forum. These lures targeted media outlets, educational institutions, and government organisations in Russia.
The malicious links were extremely short-lived to evade detection, and in most cases ultimately redirected to the legitimate website for “Primakov Readings” once the exploit was taken down.
The zero-day vulnerability in Chrome was only part of a chain that included at least two exploits: a still-unobtained remote code execution (RCE) exploit that apparently launched the attack, while the sandbox escape discovered by Kaspersky constituted the second stage. Analysis of the malware’s functionality suggests the operation was designed primarily for espionage. All evidence points to an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group.
“This vulnerability stands out among the dozens of zero-days we’ve discovered over the years,” said Boris Larin, principal security researcher at Kaspersky GReAT. “The exploit bypassed Chrome’s sandbox protection without performing any obviously malicious operations – it’s as if the security boundary simply didn’t exist.
The technical sophistication displayed here indicates development by highly skilled actors with substantial resources. We strongly advise all users to update their Google Chrome and any Chromium-based browser to the latest version to protect against this vulnerability.”
Google has credited Kaspersky for uncovering and reporting the issue, reflecting the company’s ongoing commitment to collaboration with the global cybersecurity community and ensuring user safety.
Kaspersky continues to investigate Operation ForumTroll. Further details, including a technical analysis of the exploits and malicious payload, will be released in a forthcoming report once Google Chrome user security is assured.
Meanwhile, all Kaspersky products detect and protect against this exploit chain and associated malware, ensuring users are shielded from the threat.
This discovery follows Kaspersky GReAT’s previous identification of another Chrome zero-day (CVE-2024-4947), which was exploited last year by the Lazarus APT group in a cryptocurrency theft campaign.
In that case, Kaspersky researchers found a type confusion bug in Google’s V8 JavaScript engine that enabled attackers to bypass security features through a fake cryptogame website.
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