Nigeria has unveiled plans to establish a National Cybersecurity Coordination Council, signaling a shift toward a more unified, intelligence-driven approach to defending the country’s rapidly expanding digital economy.
Conceived as a non-statutory, multi-stakeholder body, the proposed Council will enhance coordination, enable trusted information sharing, and guide government strategy on cybersecurity, risk management, and national response amid increasingly complex cyber threats.
The initiative, championed by the minister of communications, innovation and digital economy, Bosun Tijani, is designed to bring together government institutions, private sector players and technical experts into a single collaborative platform to strengthen the country’s cyber resilience.
Minister Bosun Tijani noted that this initiative comes in response to a wave of recent cyber incidents that have disrupted operations across key private institutions and public sector.
In recent times, Nigeria’s financial system has faced mounting cyber pressure, reflecting global trends as cybercrime is projected to cost the world over $10.5 trillion annually, according to Cybersecurity Ventures.
Analysts say these attacks are increasingly coordinated and sophisticated, prompting the government to recognise that fragmented, institution-specific approaches can no longer manage systemic cyber risks effectively.
Under the new framework, the government aims to promote a “collective defence” model, an approach widely adopted in advanced digital economies where threat intelligence is shared in real time across institutions.
The Council is expected to include chief information security officers, cybersecurity associations, the Nigerian Computer Society, global technology providers, researchers, law enforcement agencies and civil society groups, ensuring a broad-based and technically grounded response architecture.
Key priorities will include developing national threat intelligence-sharing systems, harmonised cyber defence protocols, and coordinated incident response, while strengthening capacity to close Nigeria’s cybersecurity talent gap.
Share
