An appeal has been launched to find organisations that are interested in helping to raise cybersecurity awareness within the Nigerian business community.

A free toolkit of cybersecurity resources is currently being made available to small and medium sized business owners. The promoters of this initiative are now looking for organisations who would be keen to distribute the toolkit via their own networks. They’re also offering free training on demonstrating how to use the tools it contains.

Organisations this will appeal to are likely to be active cybersecurity campaigners (charities, technology hubs, business associations etc.) who will find the toolkit a useful addition to their existing resources.

The toolkit has been created by the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) and made available as part of the Digital Access Programme (DAP). The programme is jointly backed by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and KPMG. It aims to improve cyber security and resilience, especially among more vulnerable groups in society.

Adedayo Adeniji of KPMG explained further: “We know how important the issue of cybersecurity is for smaller Nigerian business. We feel that this free toolkit can play a big part in helping such businesses to better protect themselves. We’ve already run one successful pilot event, where we showed 35 small business owners how to use the tools in the toolkit. We followed this up with another, far larger, event for 200 more businesses. However, to make sure this toolkit gets the mass exposure that it needs, we want to work with as many other organisations as we can to help spread the word.”

“Essentially, we want to create valuable strategic partnerships with like-minded organisations who also understand the damage that cyber harms can cause to a small business. We want to show them how best to demo these tools so they can distribute the toolkit via their own networks, educational events and communication channels. We’ll supply access to the full toolkit and two hours of training. We’ll then work with our new partners to explore how best to promote the toolkit within their own communities.”

KPMG and the DAP team intend to host up to four virtual ‘train-the-trainer’ events (free of charge) during April. Organisations are invited to register their interest in these events here and to nominate members of staff who could become trained toolkit presenters.

The toolkit campaign stems from DAP research that revealed a worryingly low level of cybersecurity proficiency among smaller Nigerian businesses. It suggested that cyberattacks against these often vulnerable, unprepared targets were likely to cause significant financial hardship or could even force them to stop trading. With such businesses responsible for the majority of Nigerian employment, the fallout from successful attacks could be significant.



The GCA toolkit is seen as one way of combating this threat, providing guidance on issues such as phishing and malware; data back-ups and recovery; and protecting company email domains.