Emefiele tasks managers on quick response to cyber risks

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has charged risk managers to be quick in identifying and responding to cyber risks.

He gave this charge in Lagos on the occasion of the 2nd national risk management conference themed ‘Financial System Development and Economic Growth’.

Represented by Angela Sere-Ejembi, director of financial markets, CBN, he gave the charge pointing at how extensively technology has altered the world today, adding that being technology savvy has become a crucial requirement for risk managers today.

According to him, business transactions and financial services are becoming more digitized and reliant on the internet. Alongside this, he said the extent of technology risks and the level of sophistication of cyber-attacks are rapidly expanding. Threats such as ransomware, and targeted phishing attacks, among others, have become prevalent and could destroy the trust placed in financial institutions and Other Financial Institutions (OFIs).

This development has demanded that financial institutions, including OFIs, strengthen their cyber resilience and take proactive steps to secure their critical information assets to ensure their safety and soundness.

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He stressed that the potential of technology in risk management is vast, not only for the automation of tasks but increasingly as a tool for making business decisions as well.

“The application of big data analytics and artificial intelligence to assess and predict human behaviour, for instance, can provide great value to businesses in terms of reducing risks,” he said.

On its part to address some of the issues, he said the CBN recently issued a risk-based cybersecurity framework and guidelines for OFIs, which represent the minimum requirements to be put in place by all OFIs. This is in addition to a series of fintech-based policies and guidelines including the regulatory sandboxes, open banking, and cybersecurity, among others, released by the Bank to strengthen cyber security risk management in its determination to ensure a robust regulatory landscape without stifling innovation.

He acknowledged that despite the high inflation rate, the economy has maintained continuous growth for seven consecutive quarters, following its exit from the recession in 2020. This consistent positive performance was driven largely by the sustained growth in the non-oil sector, particularly services and agricultural subsectors, supported by continued policy interventions, as well as credit expansion to the private sector.

“It is imperative that we work to build a more resilient economy that is better able to contain external shocks, whilst supporting growth in key sectors of our economy. We must take deliberate steps to diversify the base of the Nigerian economy. We need proactive steps on the part of stakeholders in the private sector in collaboration with the government in supporting the growth of sectors such as Manufacturing, ICT, and Infrastructure to promote financial system development for economic growth,” Emefiele said.

In his opening remarks, Edward Adamu, CBN’s deputy governor, of corporate services, said the conference was a very unique opportunity for risk managers across the financial system and across the country to gather together to deliberate on risk management in the promotion of financial system development for economic growth.

Represented by Blaise Ijebor, director of risk management at the CBN, he challenged the risk managers to come up with ideas on how they can grow the financial system in a way that is sustainable, low risk, and achieve objectives.