NBS Fails to Restore Website Weeks After Hack as Nigerians Await Next Inflation Data
- Important information on the Nigerian economy remain inaccessible more than three weeks after a cyberattack
- Its unavailability is concerning ahead of the website's scheduled mid-January release of December inflation figures
- The NBS website provides easy access to key economic information for the biggest oil producer in Africa
Legit.ng journalist Zainab Iwayemi has 5-year-experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market.
After the country's statistics agency closed its website due to a cyberattack, important data on the Nigerian economy is still unavailable, over three weeks later.
Source: Getty Images
Key economic indicators for Africa's largest oil producer are easily accessible online through the National Bureau of Statistics website. On December 18, the agency shut down the website and cautioned users not to use any information found there until it was completely restored.
The website's unavailability is alarming ahead of its planned mid-January release of December inflation data.
The announcement is a crucial component of the Central Bank of Nigeria's first policy meeting for 2025, which is scheduled for January 27–28.
The statistics office has already missed out on providing an update on outstanding domestic and international debt for the same period, as well as its report on capital flows into the Nigerian economy for the third quarter of 2024, online.
Decades of economic data are also stored on the NBS website, none of which is currently accessible. Additionally, since announcing the theft, the organization's X account, which previously functioned as an extra information conduit, has stopped posting.
The statistics office released its 2024 Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey the day before the website was taken down. It revealed that 65% of households had experienced abduction events, and that Nigerians spent an estimated 2.3 trillion ($1.5 billion) in ransom over the course of a year.
Bloomberg reported that requests for comment were not answered by an agency spokesman.
Although the attack's specifics were not made public and the agency's operations have not been suspended, analysts caution that the website blackout might potentially impede access to vital data.
“The delay is giving us a lot of concern, a lot of researchers rely on data from the agency as that one source that is authentic and considered genuine,” said Uchenna Uwaleke, professor of capital markets at Nasarawa State University, Keffi. “There’s a limit to data you can disseminate via press release.
NBS to spend N35m on cybersecurity training
Legit.ng reported that Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics is set to spend N35 million on cybersecurity training in 2025 to prevent further repeats of the cyberattack which compromised its website this month.
The bureau’s website was hacked on December 18, shortly after it released several critical reports, including the Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey report.
In response to this incident, the NBS 2025 report seeks to address the concerns of its vulnerability to cyberattacks with this training and several others targeted at improving operational efficiency and enhancing service delivery.
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Source: Legit.ng
