NCC Moves against Telecoms-linked Financial Crimes

Emma Okonji

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has called on telecoms operators to come up with measures that would curb rising financial crimes linked to telecoms networks.

The NCC made the call in Lagos, yesterday, during the Second Quarter Industry Consumer Advisory Forum (ICAF), where it urged the operators to improve on the security architecture of their networks to block unwarranted access.

According to the NCC, on daily basis, Nigerians were losing their hard-earned money to fraudsters, who were taking advantage of the vulnerabilities on their platforms to defraud them.

The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said electronic fraud encompassed a wide range of malicious activities carried out via electronic means, including identity theft, phishing, hacking, and unauthorised access to personal and financial information, with the intention to defraud or take advantage of victims. He said the criminal activities might not only cause significant financial losses, but also erode consumer trust in the digital ecosystem. 

He urged the telecoms operators to upgrade and equip their networks with tools that would make them robust and secure from criminal attacks because of consumers.

According to him, an unsecured network puts the personal data of Nigerians at risk.

The NCC Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau, Alkasim Abubakar Umar, said in recent years, the growth of the telecoms sector in Nigeria had been remarkable with increasing access to mobile phones and Internet connectivity.

Speaking on the theme: ‘Combating eFraud on Telecom Platform: Building Consumer Confidence in the Digital Economy,’ Umar said the rapid expansion in the telecoms sector had also opened new avenues for criminals to exploit unsuspecting individuals through various forms of electronic fraud.

According to him, some reports had revealed that Nigerians lost about N12.5 billion to financial crimes linked to the telecommunications industry in the past four years.

Umar said this needed to be stopped immediately, adding that the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimated that $600 billion was lost to cybercrime each year, which was an increase from a 2014 study that puts global losses at about $445 billion.

He therefore said eFraud would pose a significant threat to the society, as it undermines the trust and confidence in the country’s digital platforms, hampers economic growth, and adversely impacts the lives of citizens.

The lead presenter at the forum who is Non-Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, FutureSoft, Nkemdilim Uwaje-Begho, said key challenges of eFraud, included evolving threat landscape; increased risk, lack of awareness, lack of collaboration and limited regulations.

Uwaje-Begho said to mitigate the threats, there was need to build consumer confidence in the digital economy, adding that regulators must implement policies that facilitate collaboration; establishment of formal mechanism for information sharing, encouraging public-private partnerships within the telecoms industry as well as cross-sector to leverage expertise.

According to her, international cooperation and information sharing among countries can help curb Fraud. She therefore urged telecoms operators to implement multi-layered security measures, regular security audits, vulnerability assessments and timely software upgrades.