•Nigeria requires new digital economy resilience tools to address cybersecurity threats, says NESG

•Tasks CIoD, board members on evolving, driving cyber-security risk management

Dike Onwuamaeze

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has welcomed the latest report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which showed that Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased to 22.97 per cent in May 2025, down from 23.71 per cent in April 2025.

This comes as the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Dr. TayoAduloju, stressed that in the face of growing digital disruptions and systemic cyber vulnerabilities, “Nigeria urgently requires a new digital economy resilience analytics tool to support institutional preparedness” in responding to cyber-security risks and threats.

Furthermore, the LCCI noted that this marked “a positive, albeit modest, new shift in the country’s inflation trajectory after several months of persistent increases.”

Commenting on the NBS’ report yesterday, the Director General of LCCI, Dr. ChinyereAlmona, said, “The marginal decline may have been driven by the consistent monetary tightening by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), including interest rate adjustments and liquidity control mechanisms.”

Almona, however, noted that “this improvement must be viewed cautiously, considering prevailing structural risks and looming food production and distribution shocks.”

She said the recent spate of herdsmen-farmers clashes in the middle-belt region and flooding disasters are negative signals capable of limiting food harvest this year, adding that logistics and supply chain risks also loom on the back of the current escalations in the Middle East and the deadlocked ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine.

“Importing fuel and other products may become more expensive as oil prices have gone up due to unbaiting tensions and trade wars.

“These shocks pose significant risks to food availability and prices, which could drive food inflation — an essential component of the headline inflation index — in the third and fourth quarters of 2025,” she said.

The chamber, therefore, recommend a coordinated mix of fiscal and monetary policy actions, including sustaining the reforms in the oil and gas sector that have slowed down fuel price increases recorded earlier in the year.

It said: “The Naira for crude and the mandated crude supply to local refineries should be sustained.

“The CBN should maintain prudent monetary policy while improving credit access to productive sectors, especially agriculture and manufacturing, to stimulate supply-side responses to inflation. The stoppage of government ways and means provisions should be sustained no matter the pressure.

“There is an urgent need for the government to scale up support for dry season farming, irrigation infrastructure, and mechanisation to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on rain-fed agriculture.”

The LCCI also advised the government to remain focused on dealing with the challenges around food movement from the farms to the cities.

It said addressing inefficiencies in transporting goods—particularly food—from rural to urban markets could help to lower market prices and reduce post-harvest losses.

It added that, “government spending should prioritise critical sectors with high inflation pass-through, such as food, energy, and transport, while eliminating leakages and enhancing social safety nets for vulnerable households.

“While the easing inflation rate is a welcome development, Nigeria must not lose momentum in addressing the structural drivers of inflation.

“The LCCI urges the government to act decisively in tackling insecurity, investing in resilient agricultural infrastructure, and improving policy coordination to ensure the current progress becomes sustainable and inclusive.” 

Furthermore, the NESG CEO, Aduloju, also tasked the Chartered Institute of Director Nigeria (CIoD) and board members of Nigerian enterprises to take charge of evolving a framework that would counter the risks of cybersecurity threats on businesses and government organisations. 

He said this would enable them to track and determine the extent and context of cybersecurity risk exposures of their respective organisations and be in a position to drive decisions to counter them.  

He gave this task yesterday, when he delivered a lecture with the theme: “Building Digital Resilience: Governance, Risks and Compliance” at the 2025 Biennial lecture in honour of the President of the CIoD, Mr. Tijjani M. Borodo.

He asserted that digital transformation was now global reality that every organisation must arm itself to appropriate its benefits and acquire the resilience to deal with its risks and threats.

Aduloju said: “Board must think about is a complete framework and the first thing is to transform your risk assessment to include cyber risk dimension.

“Also ensuring regular assessment to track cyber risk is important. This allows you to determine the extent, context and of course integrating cyber risks into your other risks and allows you to drive decisions based on what you have known as your risk.”

He added that organisations must establish and maintain core security fundamentals since it has been revealed that 95 per cent cyber-attack eminate from one or two unmanaged laptops that are not properly set up in terms of passwords and lack second authentication but could give access to an enterprise’s digital security system.

“Ensure that your software licences have not expired and that your security protocols are on. Have a system that creates semi-complex passwords for your organisation.

“All these little things make a huge difference on how people enter your system. Implement cyber cybersecurity audit as part of the internal audit and use it to ensure that corrective measures that cultivate a culture of resilience are in place,” he said.

Aduloju, pointed out that global cyber threats grew by 150 per cent in 2024 and that 53 per cent of them were targeted at government institutions, while their success rate was estimated at 58 per cent.

According to him, the scale of cyberattacks in the Nigerian banking industry grew by 1,300 per cent in the past two years.

He said: “Technological acceleration, therefore, means that while inequalities grow in our (Nigeria) capacity to use technology, those that know how to use it best will continue to implement greater risks and threats and in a connected world this will be a significant problem.

“The most significant impact of this is that the data we receive is now questionable because of the scale of misinformation and disinformation. 

“There is a complete consensus that disinformation, misinformation and cyber threats are problem to both the private and public sectors’ actors.”

He advised organisation to drive digital resiliency efforts by eliminating “siloed thinking to ensure that the team can see across departments and business units to deploy technology solutions and identify any resilience gap.”

He also urged the CIoD Nigeria to lead in shaping governance model where cyber security and digital resilience capabilities should become part of the core competences of a chartered director “as we shape a future that is safe not just for our businesses but for our families, children and that our economy is better positioned to compete in the 4th industrial revolution.”

In his welcome address, Borodo acknowledged that the key fallout of the CIoD Nigeria’s Charter Act is the license to produce “charter directors.”

He said: “I am proud to say that we are the only organisation in the country today that is licensed to produce charter director and  I look forward to seeing our first set of Charter Directors in the next few months.”

Borodo also spoke on the rebranding of the CIoD Nigeria, which commenced in the wake of the institute’s transition to a Chartered Institute and the Governing Council’s approval of the establishment of the Rebranding Committee in 2024. 

“I am happy to note that today, we reach a crescendo of the rebranding efforts as we proudly unveiled the new logo of the CIoD Nigeria. This unveiling marked the beginning of a bold new era for CIoD Nigeria.

“Today, CIoD Nigeria stands redefined and reinvigorated, equipped to chart the future of professional directorship in Nigeria and beyond,” he said.

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