Nigeria is stepping up efforts to end the culture of silence surrounding cyberattacks, with regulators urging banks, fintechs, and other organisations to disclose breaches or at least share intelligence as threats grow more complex. Director General of National Information Technology Development Agency, Kashifu Abdullahi, said increasing interconnectivity and the rise of artificial intelligence have made it critical for institutions to act collectively in addressing vulnerabilities across the digital ecosystem.
His remarks come against the backdrop of rising cyber incidents affecting both financial institutions and public agencies, including the Corporate Affairs Commission. Data from the Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement System shows that only 60 out of 163 institutions reported fraud cases in 2023, highlighting weak compliance levels. Meanwhile, figures from the Financial Institutions Training Centre indicate that fraud cases amounted to ₦5.26 billion across nearly 15,000 incidents in the third quarter of 2025 alone.
Regulators attribute the reluctance to disclose breaches to reputational concerns, a position Abdullahi said is no longer tenable in a highly connected system where one compromised institution can expose others. He stressed the need for structured information sharing across sectors, noting that cyberattacks often spread through interconnected platforms. In response, NITDA is working with the Office of the National Security Adviser and the Federal Ministry of Communications Innovation and Digital Economy to strengthen coordination and build a more resilient national cybersecurity framework.
The push is being reinforced by policy measures from the Central Bank of Nigeria, which recently introduced a cybersecurity self assessment tool for financial institutions and formally recognised artificial intelligence as part of fraud prevention efforts. Analysts say Nigeria’s move aligns with global trends where mandatory disclosure and coordinated cyber defence are becoming standard practice, as regulators seek to improve transparency, accountability, and collective resilience against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.