Industry stakeholders have been advised to build a culture of risk awareness, as such would empower the people with the knowledge and skills to proactively identify and report risks and embed security awareness and risk management practices throughout their business processes.
This advice was given as part of a welcome address by Kelechi Nwankwo, Head of Corporate Planning, Strategy & Risk Management at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), during the Telecom Industry Risk Management Conference in Lagos recently.
He said to build a shared understanding of emerging risks and develop comprehensive mitigation strategies, awareness will have to become very important, as it will help industry stakeholders gain key insights, share experiences and develop strategies to navigate the ever-changing landscape.
According to him, the way to mitigate technological risks and use technological innovations to provide solutions to address environmental, societal, and economic (disruption of supply chains for critical goods & resources) and geopolitical (attacks on critical infrastructure) challenges is to know.
“The telecoms industry has gone through remarkable transformations, and as stakeholders, it is our responsibility to stay informed, prepared and proactive in managing the potential risks ahead,” he advised further.
Meanwhile, quoting the World Economic Forum (WEF) in a survey of global leaders on the five risks most likely to present material crisis on a global scale in 2024, Kelechi mentioned extreme weather (environment), AI-generated misinformation/disinformation, cyberattacks, societal/political polarisation and cost-of-living crisis.