Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy has revealed why the federal government is unable to track phones used by terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers who contact victims’ families for ransom payments and negotiations.
WITHIN NIGERIA has learned that at the 19th edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) Administration Scorecard Series (2015-2023) held in Abuja yesterday, the minister spoke about the failure to apprehend criminal elements despite the initiative that required all citizens to have their National Identification Number (NIN) linked to their phone SIM cards.
Pantami responded to the critical issue by stating that it falls under cybercrime.
He said:
Cybercrime is under the office of the national security advisor and other security institutions.
Our role in cyber security is to ensure we minimize the possibility of a criminal deploying technology to commit a crime. So our work is proactive. At the same time, if the crime is committed and our intervention is required officially, then we will intervene.
So, here, we need to reintroduce the national NIN and civil registrations when it comes to minimizing the probability of criminals committing a crime. Two, we enforce the NIN registration. NIN registration is by our law in Nigeria; NIN is mandatory for all citizens.
Speaking further about his ministry’s accomplishments in recent years, the Minister stated that at least sixty-six (66) attempts by European hackers to hack into the virtual meetings of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) were foiled.
Pantami stated that all cases were reported to the appropriate authorities for documentation and action.
The Minister stated that since the National Policy on Virtual Engagements for Federal Public Institutions was established in October 2020 to formalize online government meetings, including those of the FEC and the Council of State, 108 virtual federal cabinet meetings have taken place.
According to him, Nigeria would have spent over N47 billion holding physical meetings to implement the virtual meetings, and at least 2.2 million jobs had been created in the country’s digital sector in the last three years.
Pantami attributed the challenges in telecommunications to a lack of infrastructure and vandalism of fiber optic cables.
He stated that in one year, approximately 13,000 cases of vandalism of fiber optic cables were recorded in various locations across the country.
According to the minister, broadband penetration will be 46.2 percent by November 2022, with quarterly revenue from the ICT sector totaling N408 billion.
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