TSA: ECOWAS set to partner with Nigeria, others.

The Economic Community of West African States has offered to work with Nigeria and other member countries to secure the databases of their Treasury Single Accounts as well as other strategic databases.

The Commissioner for Telecommunications and Information Technology at the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja, Dr. Isiaias Bareto, conveyed the offer at the 6th International Annual General Meeting of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, which opened in Abuja on Tuesday.

Represented by Mr. Temple Iheanacho, Bareto regretted that information systems were porous in the region, but added that the commission would work with every country in the region to ensure the security of their information assets.

He said, “We want to work with information technology professionals to see how we can improve the confidentiality of information systems and availability.

“Recently, some of our member states have announced single accounts. The question is if a hacker has access to one of these single accounts, what happens? So we should come up with strategies; we should come up with secure processes that will help us to safeguard this information asset.

“Our information asset, particularly in this region, is very porous and open. We need to work with developed countries; our experience is really nothing to write home about. In this region, we challenge us to please optimise our solutions and optimise our resources to work with the level of infrastructure that is available to us.

“We are looking at cybercrime issues. We are working with member states to develop a computer emergency recovery team and to develop some public key infrastructure for them. Our funds at the ECOWAS Commission are dwindling but information needs are rising.