KEY POINTS

• Communications Minister Bosun Tijani is championing a national cybersecurity council to unify Nigeria’s response to sophisticated cyber attacks targeting public and private institutions
• The proposed non-statutory platform will bring together CISOs, tech firms, law enforcement and government bodies to share threat intelligence and provide advisory support to the Federal Government
• The initiative follows recent cyber incidents that disrupted operations across major Nigerian institutions and exposed growing coordination among threat actors

Communications Minister Bosun Tijani is championing a plan to establish a national cybersecurity coordination council designed to unify Nigeria’s response to increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, the Federal Ministry of Communications announced Monday.

The ministry said the Nigeria cybersecurity council will operate as a non-statutory, multi-stakeholder platform, bringing together chief information security officers, cybersecurity professionals, technology firms, law enforcement agencies and government institutions under a single coordination structure.

“The platform will support efficient coordination, trusted information sharing, and sustained cooperation among institutions responsible for advancing Nigeria’s cybersecurity posture,” the ministry said.

How the council will function

The council will provide advisory support to the Federal Government on strategies and frameworks needed to improve national cyber resilience. The ministry also said it will work with the Office of the National Security Adviser to promote structured partnerships and strengthen cyber defense frameworks across sectors.

Meanwhile, the ministry pointed to recent cyber incidents that posed risks to customers and disrupted operations across major private and public institutions as the catalyst for the initiative. Those incidents, it said, highlighted “the increasingly coordinated and sophisticated nature of cyber threats” targeting Nigeria.

Nigeria cybersecurity council addresses a collective defense gap

Indeed, the ministry framed the council’s approach as a collective defense model, arguing that modern cyber threats require pooled threat intelligence and multi-stakeholder coordination rather than isolated institutional responses.

Moreover, the ministry said the Nigeria cybersecurity council platform will enable public and private actors to share threat intelligence in real time, allowing faster detection and response to incidents that increasingly cross sector boundaries. Finally, Tijani has positioned the initiative as central to Nigeria’s digital economy agenda, arguing that a robust cyber defense posture underpins investor confidence in the country’s digital infrastructure.