The Federal Government has unveiled plans to roll out a new cybersecurity framework this year to curb rising AI-driven cyber attacks on banks, businesses and government agencies in the country.
The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, who made this disclosure, said the framework would require organisations operating in Nigeria to meet minimum cybersecurity spending thresholds.
He noted that currently many companies underinvested in cybersecurity because they assumed they were unlikely targets, thereby exposing their entities and investments to unquantifiable risks
According to the NITDA boss, the framework, which is being planned for implementation later this year, will also introduce mandatory timelines for reporting data breaches, systems for sharing threat intelligence between the public and private sectors, and coordinated response protocols for major cyber incidents.
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Inuwa maintained that the NITDA and other relevant agencies were tightening cyber defenses as artificial intelligence continued to accelerate both the scale and sophistication of attacks on banks, payment platforms and government networks globally.
The latest move by the Federal Government on the planned framework is coming as many national governments are shifting toward stricter cybersecurity regulation by introducing tougher breach-reporting requirements, mandatory risk controls and deeper information-sharing obligations as cyber threats intensify.
This is particularly important as Nigeria is transforming to a fast-growing digital economy with increasing presence of fintech companies that are increasing the country’s exposure to cybercrimes.
For instance, a 2025 Nigeria Cybercrime Assessment by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Nigeria lost an estimated N1.1 trillion to cybercriminals across banks, telecommunications companies and government agencies between 2017 and 2023.
The report noted that globally such losses had been rising as cyber-attacks were become more complex and cryptocurrencies were increasingly being used for money laundering.
