By Abdulfatah Babatunde
The Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Aminu Maida say effective application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is critical in combating financial crimes.
Maida made these remarks while speaking at the 11th Anniversary Lecture Series of RealNews Magazine, on Tuesday, in Lagos.
“ICT plays a critical role in combating financial crimes by enabling real-time surveillance,
regulatory compliance, and secure data processing,” NCC boss said.
According to him, ICT enables real-time surveillance, regulatory compliance and secure data processing. This is just as it sought multidisciplinary collaborations to address illicit financial flows in the country.
NCC boss said robust ICT systems are critical for preventing and investigating financial crimes or mitigating the risks associated with virtual assets in the financial markets.
Represented by Reuben Muka, NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Maida, described financial crimes as criminal activities.
“Such crimes, he said, involve transactions, abuse, misuse, deception, or manipulation of financial systems for personal gain.
“The crimes also include a wide range of offences such as insider abuse, money laundering, terrorism financing, embezzlement and all kinds of fraud.
“Financial crimes have a huge economic and social impact. He added that such crimes could also lead to violent crimes that lead to loss of lives.
“They also threaten the integrity, trustworthiness, stability, security, safety, and future of an entity such as a country, enterprise or an individual,” he said.
Maida lamented that the scope of financial crimes has broadened and created further concerns due to the increasing adoption of digital technologies.
These also include the emergence of new technologies and the often transnational nature of the crimes.
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“As ICT systems get more complex, so do cybercriminal activities.
“This is just as criminal actors take advantage of the emerging flaws in the systems, the same technology has to be positioned to track movement of illicit funds in and out of Nigeria.
“Nigeria’s telecoms sector has grown significantly, resulting in massive amounts of data generation on a daily basis.
“The advent of advanced data analytics and Artificial Intelligence provides a gateway to identify suspicious digital patterns indicative of crime.
“Through partnerships with financial institutions data can be filtered to identify these suspicious patterns and nip them in the bud.
“These technologies provide real-time transaction monitoring, allowing for a proactive approach to crime prevention,” Maida said.
TheNewsZenith reports that management of RealNews inducted Maida, and other speakers at the event, into its ‘Hall of Fame’.
The Publisher/Editor of Realnews, Ms Maureen Chigbo said she established the Hall of Fame to commemorate the best minds. And it is to tap from them to enrich the discourse in national development.
She added that it is to honour those who played key roles during the anniversary lectures.
Among the audience were representatives of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority.
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