The federal government has designated the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), the Bank Verification Number (BVN), and the National Identification Number (NIN) databases as critical national information infrastructure (CNII).
This is contained in the ‘Designation and Protection of Critical National Information Infrastructure Order, 2024’, an official gazette recently signed by President Bola Tinubu.
The designation means that anyone who attacks any infrastructure listed in the gazette commits an offence and is liable to prosecution.
In addition, the gazetted document also listed all other electronic payment gateways in the country and the Treasury Single Account (TSA) database are critical infrastructures that must not be tampered with by anyone.
Protecting ICT systems
According to the Gazette, the objective of the Presidential Order is to protect and ensure the effective functioning of ICT systems, networks, and infrastructure, which are critical to driving national imperatives, economic development, national security and defence, public health and safety, and government operations.
Earlier this week, the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, who first announced the release of the gazette, described it as a significant step that would strengthen and protect investments in the ICT sector by reducing incidences capable of damaging the operations and functionality of the country’s technological systems, infrastructure, and networks.
Specifically, the Minister was elated by the designation of all telecom infrastructure in the country as CNII, noting that this would help improve the quality of telecom services, which has often been affected by disruption and intentional damage.
“This gazette now makes it an offence to wilfully damage assets such as telco towers/sites, switch stations, data centres, satellite infrastructure, submarine & fibre optic cables, transmission equipment, e-government platforms, databases among many others,” he said.
Over the years, stakeholders in the Nigerian ICT sector have been calling on the government to designate telecom infrastructure as a critical national asset to address the persistent attacks on the infrastructure across the country.
In March this year, the Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo, reiterated the call as Nigeria suffered an internet outage due to damage to some fibre optic cables.
In 2023 alone, MTN Nigeria said it suffered more than 6,000 cuts on its fiber cable. The operator relocated 2,500 kilometers of vulnerable fiber cables between 2022 and 2023, at a cost of more than N11bn —enough to build 870 kilometers of new fiber lines in areas without coverage.
Earlier this month, the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Carl Cruz, while speaking during an industry forum, said the telecom company has been recording an average of 1,000 cases of fibre cuts every month.
