National Commissioner of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Dr Vincent Olatunji, has disclosed that Nigeria now faces over 4,000 cyberattacks per week.
This volume, according to him, accounts for approximately 45% of all reported incidents in Africa.
Olatunji further revealed that financial losses in Nigeria linked to cybercrime exceeded ₦12 billion in 2024 alone.
“Even the NDPC itself is targeted, recording about 1,500 intrusion attempts on its networks in a single week,” he stated.
He made the disclosures at the IoT West Africa 2026 conference held in Lagos.
The NDPC boss highlighted that global cybercrime costs are projected to reach $10.5 trillion annually, with attacks occurring every 39 seconds worldwide.
He said coordinated shadowy threat actors are specifically targeting Nigeria’s financial systems and critical digital infrastructure.
To counter the escalating threats, the NDPC has issued an urgent advisory for all organisations, both public and private, to implement Identity Controls, adopt Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and a Zero-Trust security architecture.
He also recommended real-time logging; threat detection systems, and encryption of sensitive data; strict adherence to the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, which includes appointing certified Data Protection Officers (DPOs) and conducting regular vulnerability assessment; regular backups and recovery testing to ensure systems can withstand successful breaches.
