FG to set up new national cybersecurity council after rising cyber attacks

The Federal Government has announced plans to establish a Cybersecurity Coordination Council. This is a multi-stakeholder body designed to bring together government agencies, private companies, and security experts to strengthen Nigeria’s collective defence against cyber threats.

Communications Minister Bosun Tijani announced the initiative in a ministerial press release, saying the move follows a series of recent cybersecurity incidents that disrupted operations across major private institutions and public systems.

In recent weeks, Nigeria’s financial system has come under pressure from multiple high-profile cyber incidents involving banks and payment platforms.

At Sterling Bank, a threat actor known as ByteToBreach claimed to have breached the bank’s systems, allegedly exposing data linked to hundreds of thousands of customer accounts, raising widespread concerns about identity theft and financial fraud risks. Although the bank has not publicly confirmed the breach.

Similarly, First City Monument Bank (FCMB) was recently targeted in a major cyber fraud attempt involving over ₦3 billion. While the bank managed to block and recover a large portion of the funds, about ₦677 million still reached attackers. This highlights the scale and sophistication of ongoing threats.

He stated that the attacks demonstrate the increasing organization and sophistication of cyber threats, emphasizing that Nigeria must move away from isolated responses.

“Cybersecurity is a shared national responsibility,” Tijani said. “Protecting Nigeria’s digital economy requires strong partnerships, trusted collaboration, and collective vigilance across government, industry, and civil society.”

The proposed council will not be a regulatory body. It is designed as a coordination platform, a space where institutions share threat intelligence, align on defence protocols, and respond to incidents together rather than separately.

The government’s thinking is straightforward: when a cyberattack targets one institution, others are often at risk too, and isolated responses leave the entire ecosystem exposed.

What the cybersecurity council will do and who will be involved

The council will include chief information security officers, cybersecurity professional associations, the Nigerian Computer Society, international technology companies in Nigeria, digital security researchers, law enforcement, civil society organisations, and relevant government ministries and agencies.

They will collaborate to establish reliable systems for the timely exchange of threat intelligence, create cybersecurity protocols applicable across various sectors, implement training initiatives to expand Nigeria’s cybersecurity expertise, and establish coordinated procedures for incident response and recovery.

To kick start the process, Tijani has instructed four agencies: the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Galaxy Backbone Limited, and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), to work together to establish a technical coordination secretariat. This secretariat will be located at NITDA and will report to the minister’s office.

The government will host a national cybersecurity industry roundtable in April. This event will mark the official beginning of discussions with stakeholders about the national cybersecurity council. At the roundtable, the government will gather feedback from both public and private sectors to start developing how the council will operate.

Nigeria’s digital economy has expanded significantly in recent years, making it an increasingly attractive target for cybercriminals.

The government’s move to create a coordinated national response signals that it recognises the scale of the problem and that protecting that digital infrastructure requires more than individual institutions acting alone.

Similar read: Lagos-based AI cybersecurity startup, Cybervergent secures $3M seed funding

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