The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) on Thursday estimated that at least $3 billion was being lost yearly to sharp practices in the nation’s telecommunication industry.
The Executive Vice Chairman of the commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, made this projection at the ongoing 85th edition of the Telecom Consumer Parliament (TCP) in Lagos.
Specifically, the industry regulator listed some of the despicable practices to include call masking, SIM boxing and call refilling, amongst others.
According to him, these acts or practices are not only threats to the telecom sector’s sustainable growth but also constitute security risks to the country.
Danbatta who described the sharp practices by cyber and other industry segments criminals as worrisome, charged the security authorities and other relevant agencies of government to continue to collaborate with the commission in its sustained efforts to sanitise the industry.
In Kaduna on Wednesday, the NCC vice Chairman had charged the security agencies on the adotion of ICT tools in their operations as a strategic step towards improving their operations and in guaranteeing national security.
Danbatta, who gave the advice in his presentation as a guest lecturer at Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA, Kaduna, hinted that as part of the commission’s contribution to ensuring security in the country, it was working towards establishing a Cyber Security Incidence Response Team (CSIRT) for the telecommunication sector.
According to him, the initiative will facilitate intervention, identification of threat and sharing of valuable information and resources to help in fortifying national security.
He explained: “ICT infrastructure and systems are becoming very useful in producing intelligence information and reports that could be very essential and invaluable in the task of thwarting and combating crime.
“The deployment of ICT infrastructure has transformed our society in spectacular ways by enabling profound social and economic transformation”, the industry regulator stressed.
