Nigeria cybercrime ranking stirs fears about investments

A new report by the Internet Crime Complaint Center has named Nigeria, Africa's largest telecom market by investment and subscription, as number three in the world and the top African nation in the U.S. agency's cybercrime rankings.

The ranking means that Nigeria has the highest number of cybercrime incidents in Africa and is right behind the U.S. and the U.K. -- which have larger populations. The publicity surrounding Nigerian cybercrime is raising fears that the country may face a slowdown in international investment in the telecom as well as the financial sectors.

As more Africans use the Internet for their banking needs, the number of fraudsters eyeing people's bank accounts and online financial transactions has also multiplied.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes estimates that Nigeria has lost millions of dollars through cybercrime.

The Nigerian government has issued warnings about the vulnerability of the country's ICT infrastructure to cyberattacks. Following the warnings, the Nigerian government has indicated that it wants to work with other African countries to increase warning and decision time on cybercrimes.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes representative Dagmar Thomas said there was need to get both the Nigerian government and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to back the fight against cybercrime and eradicate it. Thomas, who spoke at the recent conference of African leaders meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, said there was need for political awareness, multilateral cooperation, and commitment to build capacity for scalable and sustainable solutions.

"The problem of piracy is so severe that it negatively affects the economy of the country because of revenue loss," said Zambian Minister of Communications and Transport Geoffrey Lungwangwa, speaking in Lusaka after the Abuja meeting.

The Nigerian government has said it now wants to formulate a legal framework for cybercrime prevention in order to protect financial institutions. Currently, very few banks that provide Internet services are able to also offer security software to curb cybersecurity attacks. Phishing attacks aimed at banks and other financial institutions feature unsolicited messages instructing users to follow a link to confirm their account information, as a way for criminals to obtain their passwords and user identities. 

The Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) principal officer Farida Waziri said that anticrime measures put in place by the Nigerian government have already blocked scams that would have fleeced users out of an estimated US$500 million.

By working with vendors like Microsoft, Waziri said, several e-mail scams have been stopped. Microsoft has also helped launch a song, composed by prominent Nigerian musicians, aimed at fighting the menace of cybercrime.

Besides Nigeria, other countries in the region including Zambia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have launched vigorous campaigns to educate consumers about cybercrime.