Federal government, in partnership with the World Bank, has launched a fresh $65 million funding phase of the Sustainable Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards Enhancement (SPESSE) project aimed at benefiting more than 24,000 Nigerians through professional training and institutional capacity development.

The initiative, coordinated by the National Universities Commission (NUC), is designed to strengthen procurement systems, environmental management and social standards across public and private institutions, while promoting transparency, accountability and sustainable development practices nationwide.

Abdullahi Ribadu, executive secretary of the Commission, disclosed this in Abuja during the signing of performance contracts for the additional SPESSE financing. He explained that the intervention builds on the gains of the initial $80 million SPESSE project, which became effective in 2021.

According to Ribadu, the programme has significantly improved institutional frameworks and developed professional expertise in key governance sectors. He noted that the initiative was introduced to address the shortage of qualified professionals in procurement, environmental management and social standards within both public and private institutions.

He said: “With the support of the World Bank and under the coordination of the NUC, six centres of excellence were established across the six geopolitical zones to provide sustainable capacity building in these critical sectors”.

Ribadu stated that the participating universities were selected through a transparent and competitive process based on institutional readiness, quality assurance and sustainability.

He added that the institutions have continued to produce skilled manpower capable of advancing transparency, environmental responsibility and inclusive national development.

He described the contract signing ceremony as a renewed commitment to accountability, sustainability and institutional excellence, noting that the centres have recorded major achievements, including the introduction of specialised academic programmes ranging from short courses to undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.

The NUC boss further disclosed that three of the six centres have already commenced PhD programmes, while the remaining centres are expected to begin by July 2026.

He added that under the new funding phase, the Commission targets at least 60 PhD graduates, enrolment of 60 foreign students, staff internships and expanded student exchange programmes with international institutions.

Also speaking, Adebowale Adedokun, director-general, Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), said the project has so far trained more than 2,700 officers from both the public and private sectors to improve procurement competence nationwide.

He said the next phase would support the rollout of Nigeria’s electronic procurement system and expand online capacity-building programmes for policymakers and small and medium-scale enterprises involved in managing public funds.

On his part,  Ishtiak Siddique, World Bank Task Team Leader for SPESSE, revealed that more than 40,000 participants had benefited from training under the original project, with over 4,000 certified in procurement, environmental and social standards.

Siddique said the additional funding would focus on strengthening the capacity of federal, state and local government agencies to improve development outcomes and service delivery, stressing that sustainability remained central to ensuring continuity beyond donor support.

For her part, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola, Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos,  reaffirmed the institution’s commitment to advancing professional capacity development under the SPESSE framework through postgraduate training, institutional ownership and international collaborations.

Kaspersky has expanded its Kaspersky Interactive Protection Simulation (KIPS) with new advanced cyberattack scenarios tailored specifically for IT organisations.

The update introduces realistic simulations of deepfake-enabled fraud, supply chain compromise, trusted relationship attacks and destructive wiper malware, helping businesses test their preparedness against today’s complex threat landscape.

IT companies remain one of the most attractive targets for cybercriminals. As attackers increasingly combine social engineering, supply chain manipulation and ransomware tactics, organisations require hands-on, strategic training that reflects real-world attack dynamics.

Kaspersky Interactive Protection Simulation is designed to bridge the communication gap between CISOs, IT teams and top management. By immersing participants in realistic cyber crisis scenarios, KIPS demonstrates the operational and business impact of attacks in an accessible, engaging format.

Real-world attacks in a realistic simulation environment

The updated IT-focused scenario in KIPS exposes participants to modern attack techniques observed by Kaspersky experts in active malicious campaigns targeting the IT sector.

Participants may face:

Binary Backdoor in the Build – a supply chain attack that compromises software during signing, packaging or distribution stages. Once deployed, the tampered product enables data theft, persistent remote access and the compromise of trusted customers downstream.

DeepFake Boss – a social engineering campaign leveraging AI-generated video and voice impersonations of corporate executives to manipulate finance teams into initiating unauthorised payments.

Trusted Relationship Attack (VPN) – exploitation of third-party access and remote connectivity tools to infiltrate corporate environments through contractors or service providers.

Wiper Attack (Babuk) – a destructive malware scenario based on leaked Babuk ransomware code. This scenario tests resilience against irreversible data corruption combined with ransomware deployment. In the simulation, if players fail to contain the attack in time, data becomes encrypted, forcing a complete rebuild from scratch.

IT companies can now choose between two dedicated attack scenarios, testing coordination, crisis management and decision-making under pressure. KIPS is available in both live (up to 100 participants) and online (up to 1,000 trainees) formats and provides detailed analytics on participants’ decisions, team coordination and benchmarking against previous sessions.

“To stay secure, organisations need a layered defence strategy that combines technology, processes and people. But investing in tools alone is not enough. Cyber resilience depends on awareness, coordination and the ability to respond effectively under pressure,” comments Svetlana Kalashnikova, Security Awareness expert at Kaspersky.

“Kaspersky Interactive Protection Simulation, a part of a comprehensive Security Awareness offering, helps organisations experience real-world attack scenarios in a controlled environment, strengthening decision-making, cross-team collaboration and executive understanding of cybersecurity risks. By transforming complex threats into practical learning experiences, we empower companies to build stronger, more resilient security cultures.”

Sen. Afolabi Salisu, the Chairman, Senate Committee on ICT and Cyber Security, has said efforts were ongoing to review the National Data Protection Act (2023) to meet emerging threats associated with technological advancement.

Salisu disclosed this on Tuesday at the opening of a three-day workshop, on Data Protection Awareness Promotion organised for the Joint National Assembly Committee on ICT by Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) and Ampersand Development Partners.

He said that since the enactment of the Act in 2023, there have been new developments such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the United Nations Convention on Cyber Crimes.

The lawmaker said that there is a nexus between data governance and cyber crimes hence the need to look at the Act and strengthen the handshakes where necessary.

According to him, we need to ensure the security of our country, particularly in the cyber space and our data governance as well as technology advancement like AI.

“As legislators, we need to have knowledge on data privacy and protection for us to be able to effectively legislate in that area.

“You cannot legislate in an area that you are not sufficiently knowledgeable in; this workshop affords us the opportunity to build our capacity to understand modern principles of data protection and to be in position to review the National Data Protection Act

“It has been three years down the line, how has this law addressed the need of the nation, particularly given the emerging technologies and how it compares with other other countries.

“At the end of this exercise, we would be able to come up with a roadmap, a timeline, with a view to review the National Data Protection Act,” he said.

The lawmaker tasked all Nigerians on private data protection saying that it is the duty of all citizens to ensure safety of their data.

He said that many free public WiFi and Apps are not always free as users pay with their data and adverts without knowing it.

Also speaking, the Chairman, House Committee on ICT and Cyber Security, Rep. Stanley Olajide (APC- Oyo) said that data is gold and Nigeria’s next prosperity was not going to be oil but data.

He said that no investor would bring foreign funds or capital into Nigeria, without making sure that the right data protection law is in place, which Nigeria has.

“Whatever data that we have is our sovereign wealth, is something that belongs to us. How do we protect it? We have to make sure that the right legal frameworks are put in place, so that those data, once bridged, you can actually hold entities, corporation, the countries responsible when they’ breach your data law.

“In the U.S., they have their data law; if you put anything in their cloud, is owned by the United States. So we also have to have something here.

“Anything that resides here in Nigeria and is generated here must be home and protected by our country; so we are put in the right laws and framework in place just to do that,” he said.