The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the initiative was launched in collaboration with Committee of Chief Information Security Officers of the Nigeria Financial Industry (CCISONFI) and Cybersafe Foundation (CSF).
Mr Abumere Igboa, CCISONFI Chairman, announced the partnership on Monday during a Cybersecurity Awareness Campaign Media Parley held at Radisson Blu, Victoria Island, Lagos.
“This initiative looks at tackling cybercrime that poses a threat to customers and the Nigeria citizenry in conducting reliable and safe financial services.
“Although the use of digital platforms has transformed the cyber and technology landscape, it also has its own risk, especially with sustaining trust in customers ability to transact securely within the financial ecosystem,” he said.
Igboa said that a loss of such trust and confidence could undermine the benefits of CBN’s cashless economy or the ability to continually leverage on technology.
He added that there was a constant need to address the related challenges of ensuring continuous cybersecurity and data privacy.
“We have also realised that only through concerted efforts by financial industry stakeholders and ensuring our customers remain cyberaware, can we then eliminate or take measures to reduce the activities of cyber criminals,” Igboa said.
Also speaking, Mr Confidence Staveley, Executive Director of Cybersafe Foundation, said the partnership would enable them join forces to reach the 40 million Nigerians who currently access financial services across the country.
“This will also help in raising mass cybersecurity awareness and consequently reduce the success of rate of cyber fraud attacks among customers.
“There is clearly a need to include an aggressive cybersecurity awareness campaign to compliment other proactive and reactive measures being taken to curb cyberfraud.
“However, we must collaborate across the financial ecosystem, consolidate resources, strengths and reach across the aisle to sectors like the media for support to drive cybersecurity awareness for significant impact,” Staveley said.
Commenting, CBN Director of Banking Supervision, Mr Haruna Mustafa, said that cybersecurity awareness was a key element in mitigating cyber-risk.
Mustafa, who was represented by Dr Adedeji Sikiru, CBN Deputy Director, Banking Supervision, said that the bank was ready to partner with industry stakeholders to sustain efforts at educating staff and customers on fraud information and cybersecurity hygiene practices.
“It would also be beneficial to the industry if banks extend their cybersecurity awareness programme to their customers using various media in Nigerian languages such Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa, among others, for an improved ecosystem.
“Another area of focus is driving and integrating awareness programme into the Nigerian education system,” Mustafa said.
He said that the present generation of students were practically born with technology in their hands, noting that cybersecurity must be an integral part of their education.
Mustafa said students, teachers, and administrators all needed access to the learning tools necessary to understand, detect and avoid cyber threats they might encounter in their daily activities.
“To this end, the CBN is ready to partner with industry stakeholders to develop awareness programme that can be integrated into the education system in Nigeria to create a security culture for citizens from childhood,” he said.