CEO INTERVIEW What NITDA is doing on fraudulent websites – Dr Pantami
In this exclusive interview with
the Director General of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim speaks on cybercrime and how the agency is tackling it.
NITDA is said to have played a crucial role in helping JAMB block some websites claiming to be JAMB’s…
Yeah, we intervened and were able to block the fake websites. What happened was this: When the Registrar and the CEO of JAMB, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, was appointed he said one of the big problems he inherited was the fake and fraudulent websites, claiming to be JAMB’s, collecting money from our younger ones willing to write their UTME exams. They were about nine webpages claiming to be for JAMB. Some of them had already collected money in millions of naira. So he wrote to us and immediately what we did was to identify the fraudsters. We used Who is Dot Com to identify the personalities. We identified many of them. Two, we identified where the websites were hosted. NIRA Nigeria Internet Registration Association- which is under NITDA, was mandated to suspend the fake websites. NIRA registers dot ng (.ng). Any .ng is managed by NIRA on behalf of NITDA. So we directed NIRA to suspend all of these fake JAMB websites with .ng and it was done. We identified the personalities and we wrote to the security agencies to report them. And immediately we identified nine, and seven were shut down. The remaining two were hosted outside Nigeria so we couldn’t shut them immediately. But we reached out to ICANN - Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers - to ask them to shut the two fake websites down. And I believe by now they have done so.
So when things like these come up from time to time we try to do our best. It may interest you to note that because of we did, the Registrar of JAMB was so happy to the extent that he came here with the entire management team of JAMB to say thank you. He said without spending a kobo, the problem was eliminated significantly.
So this is part of our mandates, part of our responsibilities to use IT to enhance the securities of Nigeria and Nigerians.
You said NITDA would also see to what the media put online …
Yes. What they publish in hardcopy is not our business. But our concern is what they publish online. By going online, media has become part of my constituency. They have to be regulated online, but that is not to stifle them or frustrate them; it is to protect them and other innocent Nigerians. It is to support them professionally and make sure that they do it effectively. Sometimes we even do intervention in regulation. If they have some problems relating to IT and they don’t have capacity to solve it we provide support to them. We also support them by giving them hardware and other devices.
NITDA has quite a number of ICT centres across the country…
Yes, but I can’t give you the number offhand now. But for sure we have a number of them: from KAV [Knowledge Access Venue] to Community Resource Centres [CRCs] to Digital Capacity Training Centres [DCTCs], and e-Libraries. I am sure they are more than 1000.
But most Nigerians don’t know all these…
Yeah, this is because of lack of adequate publicity. NITDA as an agency needs a lot of publicity. You can’t deliver in this agency without publicity. That is where media will play a great role because even regulation can’t be done without publicity. We need media to convey to the people what we do here. That is why I try to operate an open door policy to the media because I believe we are partner in progress: without the media our efforts wouldn’t show.
The banks are said to be biggest importer of foreign software and devices. Have you reached out to them on the need to patronise indigenous companies?
Yes, we have reached out to them. Even recently, we made some interventions when the Central Bank wanted to import some software. The Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria [ISPON] got the information and they reached out to us and I quickly wrote to the CBN Governor and we asked them to put it on hold; that is it not allowed. They should come so that we can look into it to check whether it is software that Nigerians have the capacity to develop or not. If we have the capacity, they will not be allowed to import. But if we don’t have the capacity we can give them a waiver to import it pending the time we will have the capacity to develop it here in the country.
That is the only way we can support our nation. As a result of that the CBN Governor was kind enough: he sent a powerful team to us - Director ICT, Director Procurement, Director Legal Services and many more - to come and discuss with us to seek our inputs and our advice on how to resolve the issue. I was not around when they came but two of our directors acting on my behalf received them, discussed with them and guided them on what to do. We asked them not to go ahead until we do our investigation to see if we have the capacity at home for the software.
How many Nigerian students have benefitted from NITDA sponsorship so far?
There are many, they are more than 500. Those on full Msc and Phd scholarships are about 326 - and they are in the UK, Canada and other developed countries, studying IT related courses. And they rest are partially scholarship. We also have Prof Angaeya Scholarship scheme through which about 70 students are given partial scholarship annually.
What benefit does the scholarship scheme have on the economy?
Our mandates include regulation and development of capacity. We look at critical areas where we need to build capacity so we send Nigerians to go and study the courses to come home and serve the nation: that is part of the agreement, if you are to benefit from the scholarship. You must come back and serve the nation. If you have any reason to make you stay there after your study, you must write to seek for waiver from NITDA.
What major difference between your agency and Galaxy Backbone? is the
The idea of establishing Galaxy Backbone came from NITDA. The then DG of NITDA was even the chairman of the Galaxy board. It was later that it was taken to SGF office. Before whoever was the DG of NITDA used to be the chairman of NITDA board.
You have said Nigeria still imports virtually all what it consumes in terms of ICT, what are you doing to stop or reduce this?
We have setup two offices purposely to do this. One office: Office of Nigerian Local Content in ICT. This is an office to promote anything Nigerian in ICT, to give it publicity, to promote it and to call the attention of MDAs to patronise our own IT. By implication we are using this to strengthen our economy.
The office is to tell the MDAs that there is a law that has made it an offence for you to buy an ICT product or service, which is available here in Nigerian, outside the country. It is a punishment offence to do that.
But most MDAs claimed they were not aware of this, and that is why we are giving it publicity now. I have even gone to the Bureau of Public Procurement that they shouldn’t allow any MDA without NITDA’s clearance to purchase any IT product or service. I also went to the Budget Office to tell them that they shouldn’t approve any IT budget of any agency without our input; without seeking for clearance from here.
People don’t know that the FG had said or directed all MDAs that whenever they want to embark on any IT project they must consult NITDA and seek for clearance. So officially NITDA is the clearing house for all MDAs when it comes to IT projects.