FG Urged to Chart Direction for Digital Economy
By Emma Okonji
The federal government has been advised to as a matter of necessity, develop policy direction for Nigeria that will enhance the country’s chances of attaining digital economy status.
Experts emphasised the need to create a clear policy direction for Nigeria’s digital economy to facilitate effective cybersecurity practice.
According to the security company, in today’s digitised world, cybersecurity has become a vital component of enterprise risks solution, helping organisations to deliver their bottom-line.
The Chief Operating Officer of Academy Halogen, Dr. Wale Adeagbo stressed the importance of a strong cybersecurity policy direction at the opening of a policy development session hosted at the Lagos campus of the institution.
Tagged: “Digitising Nigeria: A Meeting of Town and Gown,” the cyber security policy confab was a joint initiative of Academy Halogen and the ICT-Driven Knowledge Park of the Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU.
The Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede, noted that OAU now has a sustainable policy of engaging with the community and organisations within the industry towards producing graduates who are both academically sound and industry savvy.
Ogunbodede, further gave assurance that the cyber security learning session was a product of thoughtfulness between OAU and Academy Halogen for the good of Nigeria.
“This is an initiative we are driving together for the benefit of the entire country. The purpose is not about making money, the purpose is to contribute effectively towards digitising Nigeria in the area of cyber security,” Ogunbodede said.
In his presentation on competencies and requirements in addressing cybersecurity, a Micro-electronics and Medical Robotic Engineering expert, Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe, added his perspective to the cyber security discussion and the need for a robust digital policy direction.
“The world is made up of numbers. Everything we do as humans is about numbers. We can reduce frictions in business by deploying right technology. Companies are moving from the physical to the digital realm.
“Digitising Nigeria will bring about a new nexus of opportunities. Our nation will only be bounded by the limitation of the mind”, Ekekwe said.
The Vice-Chairman, Troyka Group, Mr. Jimi Awosika in a presentation tagged: “Business and the need for safety in an open world,” observed that we now live in an open world full of risks, which requires security and intelligence to survive.
“On the part of business and society is the requirement for appreciation of the present danger of the open world and the need to invest not only in these services but more so the propagation of the knowledge that the open world presents for as they say, the panacea for the spread of any communicable disease conditions is knowledge,” Awosika said.
Also, in a presentation titled: “Enterprise Risk in Cyber, Director General, Association of Enterprise Risk Management Professionals (AERMP), Mr. Olayinka Odutola, who represented the Association’s President, Mrs. Taiwo Ige, noted that cybersecurity is an enterprise risk management issue and not just an information technology issue.
The Co-centre Leader, OAU ICT Driven Knowledge Park, Professor Ganiyu Aderounmu, noted that the institution was already bridging knowledge gap between the academic and the industry through collaboration with many corporate big players in the ICT and allied sectors for industrial knowledge transfer to graduates.
“At OAU, the ICT-Driven Knowledge Centre is already blocking the leakage of students lacking practical and industry experience. We have a lot of partners.
“We are partnering with Academy Halogen to further enhance our growing collaboration in the area of cybersecurity. We are committed to stimulating creativity and excellence in research and innovation in ICT,” Aderounmu explained.
