Cybercrime War: Microsoft, Paradigm Initiative Get World Bank Support

*L-R: Shina Oyetosho, Developer and Platform Evangelism Lead, Ugochukwu Nwosu, Citizenship and PiL Project Manager, both of Microsoft Nigeria, ‘Gbenga Sesan, Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria and Dele Oladokun, Communications Associate, World Bank Nigeria, at the press briefing....

By ROMMY IMAH  

Available data today estimates that the global economy loses more than US$200billion annually in direct and related damages to cybercrime. Consequently, global peace and security is under serious threat. The effect of this is more evident in developing nations of the world like Nigeria where there is currently no defined legislation against cybercrime.

Only last year, a report by the Internet Crime Complaint Centre named Nigeria as number three in the world and Africa’s number one in cybercrime rankings. What this meant was that Nigeria had the highest number of cybercrime incidents after the United States of America and the United Kingdom. More than one year after, this infamous ranking has not changed.

The country’s position in the global cybercrime rankings is seemingly worsened by the boost in her telecommunications activities in the last ten years, a consequence of the coming of the Global System for Mobile communications, GSM in the country in 2001. More people now have access to the Internet through traditional Internet provisioning and mobile applications.

This era witnessed an upsurge in the activities of the popular Yahoo, Yahoo Boys, codenamed 419 because of their advanced fee fraud exploits. Indeed, they have now moved beyond this level, getting into the more spiritually sophisticated Yahoo Plus. That is to say that even as government is slowly battling this menace, the perpetrators are busy devising more sophisticated means of carrying out their nefarious activities.

Last year, at the conference of African leaders held in Abuja, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes through its representative, Dagmar Thomas said there was need to get both the Nigerian government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to back the fight
against cybercrime and its total eradication. He said there was need for political awareness, multilateral cooperation, and commitment to build capacity for scalable and sustainable solutions.

Though the Nigerian government has not hidden its desire to fight cybercrime to the finish, it remained to be seen, the level of political will being employed to make this happen. Not once and not twice had the Nigerian government promised to formulate a legal framework for cybercrime prevention in the country yet, a bill seeking the outlaw of cybercrime in the country has been lying at the National Assembly unpassed.

This glaring lack of commitment on the part of national leaders may have perhaps informed the collaboration between the World Bank, Microsoft and Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, PIN, to launch a joint campaign that will incite prompt cybercrime legislation in the country.   

Towards this, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN), a social enterprise that connects Nigerian youth with ICT-enabled opportunities, has launched an Internet campaign at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cln/, to obtain up to 10,000 signatures for an online petition that will be forwarded to legislators for the required cybercrime legislation that Nigeria needs.  

Gbenga Sesan, popular IT Youth Ambassador and Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria said at a media briefing recently: “The prevalence of cybercrime among a sizeable number of young Nigerians goes to show the need for immediate concern, especially with the recent boom in mobile service provision and online payment platforms in Nigeria.  We’re advocating for a youth-led push for cybercrime legislation because this is where we feel we’ll have the greatest impact.”

Sesan said the initiative will be supported by a six-month grant from the World Bank’s Civil Society Fund for the advocacy work required to lobby for cybercrime legislation, while Microsoft will participate in the initiative through its Microsoft Internet Safety, Security and Privacy Initiative for Nigeria (MISSPIN), a social campaign that directs the spotlight to the issue of Internet safety while also providing a platform for other industry players to work together.

Chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Farida Waziri had disclosed early last year that anticrime measures put in place by the Nigerian government have already blocked scams that would have fleeced users out of an estimated US$500 million.

She noted that by working with vendors like Microsoft, several e-mail scams have been stopped, adding that Microsoft had also collaborated with the EFCC and PIN in providing initial government support, guidance and funding for the Maga No Need Pay song project which drew significant attention to the menace of cybercrime in the country.

Ugochukwu Nwosu, Partners in Learning Project Manager, Microsoft Nigeria noted at the briefing that Internet fraud in Nigeria is a problem that continues to victimize people around the world, and has a significant impact on the country’s ability to do business globally.

“We believe the public and private sector must work together to eliminate cybercrime and foster legitimate economic opportunity for Nigerians, and we’re pleased to support PIN through MISSPIN in partnership with the World Bank on an initiative we hope will result in the passage of the much-needed cybercrime legislation,” he said.

Caroline Sage, Senior Social Development Specialist and CSF Coordinator, World Bank said the World Bank civil Society Fund is glad to support this youth-led intervention on cybercrime legislation led by Paradigm Initiative Nigeria because “we believe it will help lay the foundation towards solving a problem that needs urgent attention.  We look forward to the use of social media in the campaign and believe that other winners of the grant will add value in their respective areas of intervention.”

Shina Oyetesho, Microsoft Nigeria Developer & Platform Evangelism Lead lamented the negative contributions cybercrime has made to the image of the Nigerian nation especially in the area of online payment as according to him, any transaction emanating from Nigeria is viewed as fraud. This situation he said is gradually pushing the country to a pariah nation in business transactions.

Oyetosho was of the opinion that this bad image could still be remedied if concerted efforts are made at appreciating the negative impacts of cybercrime on national economy and reputation and a holistic fight is declared against it.

Gbenga Sesan expressed happiness at the collaboration and said that the Paradigm Initiative Nigeria was excited to work with Microsoft, the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission and the World Bank to raise more awareness on the need for cybercrime legislation in Nigeria.

“More than at any other time in the history of Nigeria, now is the time for all stakeholders - youth, government, private sector, civil society, media, and academia - to ask for accelerated passage of firm but fair piece of legislation. We are asking Nigerians to call on the leadership of the National Assembly to accelerate the passage of the much-needed bill,” he appealed.