The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami, has said that Nigeria’s global ranking in Cyber Security has reached 75 out of 175 globally.

Isa disclosed this at the just concluded sideline of the Stakeholder’s Consultative Forum on Emerging Technologies, organized by the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) and the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy in Sheraton Hotel, Lagos.

The minister said that Nigeria was not doing badly on the global cyber security index, which ranked the country 75 out of 175 countries in 2018.

In his opening remark, Isa also said that regulations were needed due to increased data which would be about 79.4 percent zettabytes by 2025, charging regulators to be proactive.

Furthermore, the Minister said that Nigeria”s ICT regulatory approach since 2019 hinged on the National Digital Economy policy and strategy for a digital Nigeria based strictly on developmental regulation.

He said that the regulatory approach had been flexible and had not in any way restricted the sector, but rather supported its development.

Also, the Vice-President of NCC, Garba Danbatta, said the stakeholders’ contribution was critical in keeping abreast with the development in the telecommunications industry.

Danbatta, who said that the telecommunications industry was energetic, urged all stakeholders to come and constructively exchange ideas on the Spectrum and regulatory requirements of the Internet of Things (IoT).

“IoT is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring any human intervention,” he said.

He also added, “this is increasingly becoming important in the scheme of activities across most sectors of the economy which includes Education, Security, Military Reconnaissance Commerce, Governance, Inventory Management, Health, etc”.

Danbatta said the nation would witness the advent of 5G technologies, another dimension in the IoT Ecosystem as 5G technology is going to enable Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) also, GSMA Intelligence forecasts that IoT connections would reach almost 25 billion globally by 2025.

Danbatta said that with this pace of growth, it has become imperative to prepare for the Regulation of this important technology.