Nigeria’s Minister of Communication, Dr Isa Pantami has mandated agencies under the ministry to start certification process to improve cybersecurity in the country.
The Minister gave the directive in Abuja during the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Iso 27001 award ceremony by Digital Jewels in Abuja.
The agencies include Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Nigerian Postal Services(Nipost) and Nigeria Communications Satellite (Nigcomsat).
Pantani said the aim of the certification is combat cybercrime in the country.
ISO/IEC 27001:2013 is the Information Security Management System (ISMS) Standard, which is reckoned with as the third most-certified-to standard, judging from statistics computed by ISO in 2018.
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However, ISO 27001 is globally considered as a more stable, sustainable endeavour that can allow organisations to curtail information security and cyber incidences.
Considering the devastating consequences of data breaches and other cyber-related threats, ISO 27001 has become the panacea for institutionalizing structures for perpetual and consistent checks on the management of Information assets of organizations.
However, in growth rate, Africa (74 per cent to 224) and Central-North America (63 per cent to 564) were the first and second respectively, while Asia-Pacific has the highest certifications of 23 per cent and 14,704, were recorded.
The implication of this is that the realization of the value addition to information security is becoming more prominent globally, and Africa is not left out.
The Minister noted that the idea of the ISO certification is to improve security and safety in the country.
He said the Nigerian government would like to sustain the growth in Africa, because these governance structures ensure Information assurance, for citizens and businesses.
“To achieve this, I know there is a national framework on information security to drive process improvement and a roadmap is being developed by NITDA,” Pantani said.
He, however, advised NITDA to effectively regulate and encourage other MDAs on information security.
“It is pertinent to remind the Management that ISO 27001 is a management standard, which implies that top management must support it firmly, in shared responsibilities to sustain this standard”, he added.
Meanwhile, the Director-General NITDA, Kashifu Abdullahi, said the agency was developing a national framework on information security.
This according to him “will drive process improvement and continuous security awareness in organizations, whether public or private.
“The roadmap will establish some timing component to the attainment of a strengthened cyberspace that would be reckoned with locally, nationally and in the comity of nations.”
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