Telecom
NCC Mulls CERT to Tackle Cybercrime
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that the National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) will soon be established, to curb cybercrime.
Prof. Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman, NCC, made this known during the 87th Edition of the Telecom Consumer Parliament (TCP) in Lagos, adding that the provision of CERT was to ensure efficient response to security incidents within the cyberspace.
He said that CERT was essential to monitor and deter threats that could exploit information system vulnerabilities.
According to him, NCC must be in the forefront in ensuring that telecommunications networks are secure enough to ensure Nigerians who want to subscribe to the telecommunication services do so without any fear of their security or privacy being violated.
”CERT is not a team of human beings. It is a team of computers networked together, designed to checkmate incidences of cybersecurity on the telecommunications network.
”The lab that is going to be doing this is already set up, the equipment have been supplied, so what remains is just the configuration.
”The intention is to ensure that telecommunications network is secure, because in addition to all the benefits of the digital revolution, the post-Industrial Revolution we so much talk about, there is a risk dimension that results in the erosion of privacy and security,” he said.
Danbatta said that there was the need for CERT, as the demand for high-speed internet in Nigeria, Africa and across the globe by telecommunications consumers was rapidly growing.
He said that in today’s digital economy, the internet, and by extension broadband, was enabling people to carry out their personal and official activities in a more efficient and effective manner.
The EVC said that there were benefits and risks of the use of cyberspace and both had to be properly managed.
He said that the telecommunications service providers operating in Nigeria would be expected, more than ever before, to strengthen their cyber-risk protection systems and architecture.
According to him, the time has come for organisations and telecommunications service providers alike, to begin to use next-generation authentication as against the hitherto username-password authentication system.
”The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in a report, says the latter is vulnerable to hacking and all forms of cyber attacks.
”It is our belief that implementing these suggestions and more, will help telecommunications service providers and other Internet-dependent organisations in sustaining their activities in an increasingly-connected world.
”The suggestions will help in containing the menace of cybercrimes on their finances and reputation, on their employees and customers.
”The Mobile Network Operators also need to educate their consumers, regardless of their sizes and scopes of operations, and equip them with tips they need to get protected while using the internet on their networks,” he said.
Mrs Felicia Onwuegbuchulam, director, Consumer Affairs Bureau, NCC, said that the TCP provided high-level engagement and interactions with consumers, service provider, the regulator and other stakeholders in the telecommunications industry.
Onwuegbuchulam said that the programme has become a veritable platform for addressing critical industry challenges affecting consumers and other stakeholders in the telecommunications value-chain in Nigeria.
She said that the day’s Telecom Consumer Parliament brought to the front burner the problem of cybercrime, which was bedeviling the industry at the moment.
According to her, it is common knowledge that access to high-speed internet or broadband is getting more pervasive and available to Nigerians to enable them achieve more efficiency in their daily activities.
”However, there are individuals called cyber criminals, cyber hackers or cyber fraudsters whose stock in trade is to deploy the internet, using all manner of decoys, to defraud genuine and unsuspecting internet users.
”The issue of cybercrime is a global phenomenon with levels of pervasiveness differing from country to country, and from region to region.
”It is also more pronounced in Nigeria, as it costs individuals and organisations financial losses, among other dangers it poses to victims.
”It is, therefore, our concern in NCC, to see that risks associated with the usage of internet by Nigerians are addressed and mitigated too,” she said.
Clydestone Ghana Plc has filed a writ of summons and statement of claim against MTN Ghana, MTN Group Limited and Mobile Money Fintech Limited, alleging unauthorized use of its intellectual property.
The company announced the court action at the Ghana Stock Exchange, confirming proceedings in the Commercial Division of the High Court of Ghana.
The case relates to work commissioned in 2007 that Clydestone alleges was later used without authorisation or compensation.
Clydestone said the claim involves proprietary intellectual property, confidential commercial information and operational methodology developed during the engagement. The company is seeking declarations, damages and equitable remedies.
In a statement, Clydestone said MTN Ghana engaged it in 2007 to develop a commercial and operational framework for a mobile money business.
“The work was developed and delivered by the company’s founder and Group CEO, Paul Jacquaye, and included a full mobile money ecosystem covering the commercial model, operational architecture, implementation methodology and business case.”
Clydestone said the work was commissioned on the understanding that a non-disclosure agreement and memorandum of understanding would be signed.
It alleges these agreements were not finalised despite repeated requests.
The company further alleges MTN Ghana later used its proprietary work and methodology without authorisation or compensation, including in MTN Mobile Money Ghana and other markets.
Clydestone said the alleged use has continued since the launch of MTN Mobile Money Ghana in 2009.
“The wrongful use of that work has been ongoing since 2009. What has changed is the availability of independently verifiable information that documents its scale and commercial significance,” the company said.
It cited the GSMA State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2026 and MTN Ghana’s 2025 annual report as evidence of the platform’s scale.
According to Clydestone, the reports show approximately 19.3 million active users and annual revenue of about GHS 6.0 billion ($516m).
The company said it reviewed its records following these publications and concluded there were sufficient grounds to initiate legal proceedings.
It added that it has received no payment or acknowledgement for the work since December 2007, and that pre-action correspondence in 2026 received no substantive response.
“The Board of Directors has unanimously authorised the commencement of these proceedings,” the company said.
Jacquaye said: “This case is about accountability for commissioned intellectual property.
“When independent publications in 2025 and 2026 revealed the scale of the mobile money business, we reviewed all documentation relating to the original engagement and concluded these proceedings were necessary.”
MTN Group Limited, named as a defendant, had not commented at the time of publication.
In a development that underscores the fragile state of Nigeria’s telecommunications grid, an incident of infrastructure vandalism in Delta State has severely disrupted network connectivity, leaving thousands of subscribers stranded.
The breach, where a robber attacked the sites, occurred at an IHS-managed telecom node in the ASB region on July 8, 2026, immediately knocking 33 base stations offline across 2G, 3G, and 4G spectrums.
The situation in the region escalated drastically by morning when a separate fibre-optic cable cut severed primary transmission lines. Because the compromised node serves as a critical fibre convergence point, the secondary fibre cut triggered a cascading failure.
This secondary disruption ballooned the number of dark sites from 33 to 103, temporarily paralysing digital communications, banking, and commerce in the affected communities.
Industry sources reveal that the financial and logistical toll of such incidents is becoming unsustainable for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).
Currently, network providers are utilising 20 per cent more spare parts than initially budgeted for the fiscal year.
This unpredictable depletion of technical reserves has stripped operators of their supply buffers, making inventory management and financial forecasting increasingly difficult for telecom executives.
Consequently, engineering teams have been forced to cannibalise materials originally designated for network expansion and new site rollouts just to perform emergency restorations on the damaged sites.
This diversion of resources significantly delays the rollout of new infrastructure, stifling the nation’s broader broadband penetration targets and stalling anticipated revenue generation for the telecom companies.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) recently noted an average of 1,744 weekly attacks on telecom infrastructure nationwide, including over 1,100 fibre cuts.
As operators endure protracted back-and-forth negotiations with insurance firms to cover these sudden hardware losses, stakeholders are intensifying calls for the strict enforcement of the Federal Government’s recent designation of telecom assets as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) to safeguard Quality of Service (QoS).
Viral rumors about a “Tesla Pi Phone” a new phone, being developed by Elon Musk, CEO and largest shareholder of Tesla and SpaceX, are entirely fake.
AI Generated Tesla Pi Phone and Elon Musk
Instead, the tech giant said on Monday it has filed an application with the US Federal Communications Commission for permission to deploy the constellation by 2028.
It said the system would provide voice, messaging, data and emergency services.
A quick fact-check revealed that Tesla Inc. has never manufactured, developed, or released a smartphone.
Videos and articles claiming a release (often priced between $150 and $800 with solar charging or satellite-only connections) rely on AI-generated concept art and recycled internet hoaxes dating back to 2021.
Musk has only mentioned a phone in hypothetical remarks, stating Tesla would build one only if major app stores completely blocked or censored essential apps like X (formerly Twitter).
On Monday however, his company said that “Amazon looks forward to delivering on the promise of D2D [direct-to-device] connectivity, including to the millions of people living, travelling and working in places beyond the reach of existing networks today,”
The filing is the first step from Amazon into satellite mobile connections, which has until now been dominated by SpaceX’s Starlink service.
Musk’s group has signed partnerships with existing operators such as T-Mobile US and the UK’s Virgin Media O2 to provide phone services for customers where their conventional networks do not reach.
Starlink operates across more than 150 countries, offering high-speed internet connections through its constellation of satellites.
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