By Chioma Ezike
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has emphasized the urgent need to develop a comprehensive cybersecurity framework to strengthen the protection of Nigeria’s telecommunications industry from digital threats.
Speaking at Cybersecurity Framework Development Regulatory Meeting held at the NCC office in Lagos the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NCC Dr. Aminu Maida who was represented by , Executive Commissioner, Technical Services Mr Abraham Oshadami said that Nigeria’s telecom sector has grown from under 500,000 lines in 2001 to over 172 million active subscribers and 141 million internet users hence the need to secure the fast growing and robust digital space.
He further explained that to counter the growing dangers, the NCC came up with the framework development with specific objectives of fostering a unified and resilient cybersecurity posture across the industry, enhance the protection of telecom infrastructure, shield consumer data and privacy, and align with both the National Cybersecurity Strategy and international best practices.
The framework according to the EVC also aims at building industry-wide expertise to anticipate, detect, respond to, and recover from cyber incidents, while proactively identifying and mitigating future risks citing a UN Economic Committee for Africa report, Maida said a 10% increase in cybersecurity maturity can result in significant per capita GDP growth across Africa.
He added that the proposed framework will outline minimum cybersecurity expectations for telecom operators including rules for incident reporting, risk management, information sharing, and collaboration with regulatory agencies and will be guided by existing laws including the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2015 and the Nigerian Data Protection Act of 2023, which required critical sectors like telecoms to adopt stronger cybersecurity measures.
In his remark, the Executive Commissioner of Technical Services at the NCC Mr Abraham Oshadami. said the commission is working closely with stakeholders to ensure the framework reflects industry realities pointing out that Cybersecurity had become a mandatory requirement hence the need to engage stakeholders for their input which would be used added to the final framework .
The Chairman of the Committee on Development of the Cybersecurity Framework, Alhaji Babagana Digima, explained that the Cybersecurity framework meeting was aimef at streamlining cybersecurity operations and close critical gaps within Nigeria’s telecommunications sector.
He emphasized on the need to conduct a baseline assessment to accurately gauge the current state of the industry before rolling out new safeguards while assuring the commission’s commitment to work closely with industry stakeholders to foster a secure, reliable, and resilient digital environment across the country.
In a presentation, Dr. Kazeem Durodoye, CEO of Cybernovr, said the framework must take into cognisance the evolving nature of mobile technologies, including Open RAN and network virtualisation, which have changed the risk landscape for 2G, 3G, and 5G networks.
On the core principles guiding the framework’s development, Dr Durodoye said they included robust stakeholder engagement, resilience to emerging threats such as quantum-level cryptography, and the impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning on cyberattacks.
He said that the framework would be shared with the industry for review within the coming weeks.