Text of a Speech
Delivered by
Mr. Ola Olukoyede
Executive Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC
@
The National Summit on Cybercrime
Banquet Hall, State House, Abuja
October 22, 2024
I feel immensely gratified to welcome you all to this important event, the National Cybercrime Summit. Looking across this expansive hall, I must say I am moved by the impressive turnout of guests from all sectors and sections of the country. I am indebted to you all for answering our call to join in this critical endeavour to rescue our young generation from the stranglehold of cybercrime.
2. Let me profoundly appreciate the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Her Excellency, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, OON, CON, for graciously accepting to honour us with her presence as guest of honour despite her crowded schedule. Her support and encouragement were instrumental in making this event a reality.
3. I extend the same courtesies to all our distinguished guests who have travelled from all corners of our country to be with us on this significant national engagement.
4. This occasion calls for sober appraisal of the state and circumstance of our youths and by extension, the entire nation. The menace of cybercrimes, like most economic and financial crime, is a burning challenge that we cannot deny, ignore or wish away.
3. This Summit is the second to be organised by the Commission this year on the same issue owing to the overarching need for us to articulate opinions and build greater strength against the scourge of cybercrimes. This time around, we are not only interrogating the problem, we are aggregating workable solutions to it. This underscores the theme: Alternatives to Cybercrimes: Optimizing Cyber Skills for National Development.
5. The enormity of challenges posed to us as individuals and nation by cybercrimes are grievous. As individuals, youths’ involvement in these crimes is distorting and corrupting acceptable family values. The tendency towards quick riches no longer positions our young people for enterprise, resourceful intellectual aspirations and technological innovations.
6. Projections by multiple sources show that the global loss to cybercrimes may reach a staggering $10.5 trillion by 2025, with approximately 2,328 (Two Thousand, Three Hundred and Twenty-eight) cases occurring daily. The implication of all these is that, if left unchecked, cybercrimes portend grave dangers to the entire world.
7. These are the realities stoking the Commission’s fight against these crimes. Cybercrime accounts for a significant percentage of the 3455 convictions recorded by the EFCC in my one year as Executive Chairman. A significant portfolio of choice assets have also been recovered and returned to both local and foreign victims of cybercrimes by the Commission.
8. We are not oblivious of insinuations and misconceptions in some quarters that the Commission is concentrating its operational works on the fight against internet crimes. While this narrative is not really true, the fact remains that cybercrime threatens the nation’s most significant asset - its reputation, and economic wellbeing. The losses by the financial services sector to cybercrime in the last three years is staggering. We cannot continue to sit idly and watch the integrity of our institutions compromised and our youths degenerate into uselessness. The future of our nation cannot and would not be allowed to hang in the balance. We must take collective actions against cybercrimes.
9. Talking about alternatives to cybercrimes, there are ample skills that can be optimized for national development. It is this lack of serious cogitation on the alternatives that has not made our youths shift their focus from criminal tendencies. First, there is the alternative of creative and innovative development of socially-beneficial applications that can deliver better prospects than internet fraud. Today’s event is tailored towards exposing young Nigerian with strong tech skills to the opportunities that abound in various industries and sectors for legitimate wealth creation and honest livelihood. These opportunities can be found in the creative industry, tech ecosystem, financial services sector, medical services and even law enforcement.
9. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have reached a stage in our nation where necessity should compel a change of narrative from criminality to productivity, from idleness to usefulness and cybercrimes to cyber wealth. To this end, the EFCC under my leadership, is completing work on a Cybercrime Research Centre where globally-competitive research would be running as an alternative avenue of empowering our youths. The Centre, the product of collaboration with one of our foremost FinTechs, Flutterwave, is envisioned as a learning, rehabilitating and refocusing centre for youths across the country. It could also serve as a research resort for law enforcement agencies interested in deeper understanding of issues involved in cybercrimes.
10. Also, in line with the corruption prevention mandate of the Commission, the EFCC is establishing a Cybercrime Response Desk, to receive and process real time information on suspected cybercrime for immediate enforcement action to nip such cases in the bud. The initiative, in our estimation, will help in reducing incidences of cybercrime and possible loss of money by victims.
11. Excellencies, it is needful to state at this point that owing to the seriousness the EFCC attaches to the need to break the stubborn fang of internet fraud, staff handling such crimes are being trained and re-trained to be abreast and ahead of developments in the sector. We are ahead of the fraudsters and we will continue to hone our skills to beat any syndicate operating on the internet.
12. Let me use this opportunity to appeal to the conscience of parents and heads of institutions across the country to regard the fight against internet fraud as a compelling endeavour. The quality of the future leadership of our nation depends on what we do with the issue of cybercrimes today. Tomorrow is not a promise. Tomorrow is a fruit of preparation. We must all join hands together to tackle the hydra-headed monster which internet fraud has become.
13. I cannot conclude this address without appreciating the vision, courage and sincerity of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, in offering us free hand to do our work at the EFCC. We are blessed with a leader that has the best interest of the nation at heart. A testament to this is the ground-breaking initiatives aimed at lifting the financial encumbrances to tertiary education for the indigent through the Student Loan Fund and the Consumer Credit Scheme that has reduced the pressure of coping with the inflationary trend by average income earners. We will continue to support these critical social investment programmes and do what is right at all times, no matter the boulders that may be put in the way.
14. Finally, ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate everyone that has taken time to be part of today’s Summit. Our efforts should not stop at this end. We need to keep the flame burning until we break the siege of corruption in our land.
Thank you all for listening.
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