By Emma Elebeke

As part of efforts to safeguard the Nigerian cyber space from external threats and to make Nigeria a global leader in the fight against cyber threats, the National Information Technology Development Authority, NITDA has announced its plan to partner the International Multilateral Partnership against Cyber Threats, IMPACT, UN-IMPACT and office of the First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan to establish an ITU-IMPACT Advanced Regional Centre for Cyber Security office in Abuja before the end of the year..

Director General of the agency, Prof. Cleopas Angaye who disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja, said that the centre, when established would be run with expert support from private sector as managing consultant. This according to him, is expected to make the centre a self-sustaining and endure for eternity. With the centre located in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, the entire African region he said  are expected to enjoy unprecedented  cyber security support and solutions.

‘‘It is my pleasure to address you on the new steps which NITDA is taking with a few partners to making the cyber space of Nigeria become more secured, which is part of the Act setting up NITDA.

‘‘The recent appointment of the Nigerian First Lady as the UN-ITU IMPACT Global Champion for Child Online Protection by the leadership of International Telecommunication Union, ITU is a big call on Nigeria to serve and lead the world not only on Child Online Protection but also the entire gamut of cyber security,’’ he said.

It will be recalled that the leadership of ITU, recently, through a letter from Geneva appointed the Nigerian First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan as the UN-ITU-IMPACT Global Champion for Child Online Protection.

By this appointment, the First Lady is saddled with the responsibility of helping make the global cyber space safe and secure. She will be working with the Costa Rica President, who is currently the global patron on Child Online Protection.

While calling for quick passage of the cyber security bill with the National Assembly, Angaye said the aim of deploying an advanced cyber security policy is to maintain a secure, resilient and trusted electronic operating environment that supports national security and maximize the benefits of the digital economy.

Also speaking, the link person between Nigeria and ITU, Mr. Tim Akano said in the past decades, the growing importance of operations in cyber space has become increasingly apparent, which has placed national security under  serious threat from a range of cyber actors. He stressed the importance of the centre, which he said would be equipped with latest anti cyber gargets to counter the antics of hackers, who he said are highly skilled and able to defeat commercially available security solution.

‘‘The proposed ITU-IMPACT Regional Cyber security  Centre is going to provide an end-to-end Cyber security solution to  federal government, states, national assembly, 774 local governments, government agencies, the entire manufacturing sector, financial sector, telecoms among others. This new organization is being created to address the growing essential needs of government to protect ICT and overcome the flaws in commercially available solutions,’’ he said.

According to him, the activities of the centre will not be limited only to the Nigerian boundaries, but is meant to serve the entire continent of Africa with regards to   cyber security solutions.