Information Systems Experts Advocate Deployment of Technology to Tackle Financial Crimes

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), a global organisation of technology professionals on Information Technology (IT) governance, standards, data privacy, cybersecurity and systems audit, has said that deployment of modern technology can help curb illicit financial flows.

President, ISACA, Abuja Chapter, Glory Idehen, who spoke on the sidelines of this year’s, Annual Community Day, noted that although many of the members of the body were scattered all over government agencies, the association was willing to collaborate with the ministries and parastatals to rid the country of the vice.

Idehen argued that illicit funds destabilise all the good intentions of government, stressing that technology could be deployed to track illegal financial flows into the country.

“Basically, technology is a tool for good, it’s a business enabler and it complements business decisions. Anywhere, there is a business decision, that’s where technology comes in.

“So, I think, certainly it will come handy to the government and to every organisation because technology always comes handy. The government has a lot of architects, security specialists and they are working round the clock. The government’s taking advantage, making use of technology to be able to deal with most of the issues that we see.

“Cybercrime has financial implications and it affects monetary and fiscal policies of the government to be able to meet the needs of the people, but once you have financial crimes, it distorts the financial system, it makes things difficult,” he said.
He noted that IT can be further used to halt the challenges surrounding the foreign exchange scarcity, especially the issue of money laundering which has significant impact on the economy.

“Everyday, we hear about forex challenges, and all of that is not because of what the government is not doing, it is because of all those cybercrime, money laundering and all. We need to be able to track the money because when you have illicit funds coming into the system, it destabilises all the good intentions of government.

“That’s why government is all out there to curb as much as possible all illicit funds movement and that’s where technology comes in and we have a lot of our members that work with different government agencies to make sure that the best set of technology is used to address these needs, ”he added.

He noted that with the e-naira being launched by the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), government was pushing for more internet penetration and financial inclusion especially at the rural areas.

“Through the e-naira, government is looking at how to increase the penetration of financial literacy and then financial technology so that everybody would have at least an account and when this is done, the government can easily implement programmes even for remote villages.
Vice President of the chapter, Nsuki Ndeokwelu, said that as a global organisation, ISACA produces guidelines, certifications, and has the only certification for data privacy and security engineering.

She stated that because technology is relatively new in Nigeria, people who work as professionals in the system should be consulted before policies are made so that it will be relevant to the end users.

“All we want is for the voices of technology professionals to be heard. And if you’re making policies, let it be about us. So don’t go and import something from abroad, and just come on implement it, it doesn’t work.

“There are peculiarities in our environment. There are things that we are careful about that those from the west won’t even take into account,” she maintained.

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