Cybercrime and Poverty in Nigeria

Advances in global telecommunication infrastructure, including computers, mobile phones, and the Internet, have brought about major transformation in world communication. In Nigeria, the young and the old now have access to the world from their homes, offices, cyber cafes and so on. Lately, internet or web-enabled phones and other devices like iPods, and Blackberry, have made internet access easier and faster. However, one of the fall outs of this unlimited access is the issue of cybercrime. Consequently, cybercrime, known as “Yahoo Yahoo” or “Yahoo Plus”, is a source of major concern to the country. Nigeria’s rising cybercrime profile may not come as a surprise, considering the high level of poverty and high unemployment rate in the country. What is surprising, however, is the fact that Nigerians are wallowing in poverty despite the huge human and material resources available in the country. With the aid of the human security approach, this paper aims to (i) establish a nexus between poverty and cybercrime in Nigeria; (ii) examine the efforts of the Nigerian government in forestalling cybercrime; and (iii) suggest measures that could be put in place to help in curbing cybercrime as well as bringing about poverty alleviation. The paper suggests that the government must put viable policies and programmes on poverty reduction and eradication in place. However, these policies and programmes need to be judiciously backed by actions.