Academy Halogen, the Halogen School of Security Management & Technology, has emphasized the need to create a clear policy direction for Nigeria’s digital economy to facilitate effective cyber security practice.

This is because, in today’s digitized world, cyber security has become a vital component of enterprise risks solution helping organizations to deliver their bottom-line.

Dr. Wale Adeagbo, Chief Operating Officer of Academy Halogen, echoed the importance of a strong cyber security policy direction at the opening of a policy development session hosted at the Ikeja GRA, Lagos campus of the institution.

Tagged ‘Digitizing Nigeria; A meeting of Town and Gown’, the cyber security policy confab was a joint initiative of Academy Halogen and the ICT-Driven Knowledge Park of the Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU.

The Academy Halogen boss described the cyber security knowledge sharing session between industry experts and thought leaders from the academic community as a gathering meant to “trigger vital public discussion on how best to digitize Nigeria for the benefit of commerce and knowledge management”.

Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede, Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, while delivering his keynote address expressed happiness on the collaboration between his University and Academy Halogen on cyber security knowledge development on one hand and plans to work with Troyka Group on other levels.

He noted that OAU now have a sustainable policy of engaging with the community and organizations within the industry towards producing graduates who are both academically sound and industry savvy.

Professor Ogunbodede further gave assurance that the cyber security learning session is a product of thoughtfulness between OAU and Academy Halogen for the good of Nigeria.

“This is an initiative we are driving together for the benefit of the entire country.

“The purpose is not about making money, the purpose is to contribute effectively towards digitizing Nigeria in the area of cyber security”, the Vice-Chancellor said.

Speaking earlier, Professor Ganiyu Aderounmu, Co-Centre Leader, OAU ICT Driven Knowledge Park noted that the institution is already bridging knowledge gap between the academic and the industry through collaboration with many corporate big players in the ICT and allied sectors for industrial knowledge transfer to graduates.

“At OAU, the ICT-Driven Knowledge Centre is already blocking the leakage of students lacking practical and industry experience.

“We have a lot of partners. We are partnering with Academy Halogen to further enhance our growing collaboration in the area of cyber security.

“We are committed to stimulating creativity and excellence in research and innovation in ICT”, Professor Aderounmu explained.

In his presentation on competencies and requirements in addressing cyber security, Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe, a Micro Electronics and Medical Robotic Engineering expert added his scholarly perspective to the cyber security discussion and the need for a robust digital policy direction.

“The world is made up of numbers. Everything we do as humans is about numbers.

“We can reduce frictions in business by deploying right technology. Companies are moving from the physical to the digital realm.

“Digitizing Nigeria will bring about a new nexus of opportunities. Our nation will only be bounded by the limitation of the mind”, Professor Ekekwe analyzed.

Vice-Chairman Troyka Group, Mr. Jimi Awosika in a presentation tagged ‘Business and the need for safety in an open world’ observed that we now live in an open world full of risks, which requires security and intelligence to survive.

“On the part of business and society is the requirement for appreciation of the present danger of the open world and the need to invest not only in these services but more so the propagation of the knowledge that the open world presents for as they say, the panacea for the spread of any communicable disease conditions is knowledge”, he explained

In a presentation titled Enterprise Risk in Cyber, Director General, Association of Enterprise Risk Management Professionals (AERMP), Mr. Olayinka Odutola, who stood in for the Association’s President, Mrs Taiwo Ige noted that cyber security is an enterprise risk management issue: not just an information technology issue.

Other participants commented on the benefits of digitization to the private sector in terms of collaboration, the need to digitize the Nigerian populace and the lack of central data for quality policy formulation.

Academy Halogen’s policy development session is in furtherance of the Academy’s commitment to continuously raise conversation for effective enterprise security risk management and policy formulation.

The institution which is reputed to have trained about a million security personnel of various cadres in the Halogen Group’s over 25 years of existence, was formally known as Halogen School of Security Management & Technology, transforming, in a recent re-branding exercise to Academy Halogen.

Academy Halogen which offers a wide range of enterprise security risk related certificate, diploma & MBA courses in partnership with top universities like Babcock and Elizade universities, is also deeply involved in capacity development programmes in the area of enterprise security risk management for various corporations, small, medium and top businesses as well as public enterprises, government institutions and security agencies.

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