The technology community has raised urgent concerns over rising cyberattacks, weak software systems and the slow adoption of global quality standards, warning that the country’s digital economy could suffer major disruption if reforms are not prioritised.This warning came at the 8th Annual Conference of the Association of Nigeria Software Testers (ANST).
Experts stressed that trust, quality and resilience must become national imperatives, cautioning that organisations will continue to lose billions if system integrity is not strengthened through structured, globally recognised software testing practices.
Cybersecurity Expert, Oladipo Olasemo, described Nigeria’s cyber-risk environment as “a national call to action”, revealing that the country lost N53.4 billion to cybercriminals in 2024 alone and N1.1 trillion between 2017 and 2023.
Citing global threat intelligence, he warned that cyberattacks targeting Nigeria have surged by 1,047 per cent, one of the fastest increases in the world.
He said: “This is not 104 per cent or 107 per cent, this is 1,047 per cent. We have built an ecosystem and handed the keys to bad actors. If we do nothing, cyber losses could exceed N2 trillion by 2026.”
Olasemo said cybersecurity must be treated as a strategic priority, not a compliance formality. “Security is not a cost. Complacency is the real cost,” he stressed, warning that repeated breaches were damaging investor confidence.
ANST President, Demola Adesina, said Nigeria must urgently adopt structured global standard QA methodologies to avoid system glitches, failures, and outages that lead to massive financial and operational losses for organisations, expose end users to serious security and data-privacy risks, and undermine Nigeria’s global competitiveness as a software-building nation.
He noted that while previous ANST efforts focused on training testers, the association is now pushing outward, educating nd supporting organisations across sectors on the necessity of embedding quality assurance into their operations.
“When testing is done properly, applications are stable. Nigeria must become known for stable software. Every organisation must understand this,” he said.
Chief Operating Officer of Sterling Financial Holdings Company, Mr Olayinka Oni, said quality in Nigeria’s digital ecosystem is “no longer negotiable.”
“Quality is the essence. The cost of failure is huge when quality doesn’t exist. Anything that will stand the test of time must be built with quality and integrity from day one,” he said. Oni warned businesses against confusing speed with carelessness.
“This is the moment to raise the bar. Quality compounds; mediocrity also compounds. Nigeria’s digital future depends on the choices we make today.”
Director of Testing Academy Nigeria, Soji Ononuga, highlighted the impact of artificial intelligence on global-quality engineering.
“AI can write test cases, predict defects, analyse behaviour and execute at a scale humans cannot match. The world will always need testers because the world will always need trust,” he said. He called for a national AI testing curriculum, stronger industry, government collaboration, and increased investment in next-generation skills.
Founder, Scandium Systems, Azeez Ogunjobi, introduced the company’s new AI-driven test tool, Rova AI, built to speed up exploratory testing using machine learning.He emphasised that all Scandium products are 100 per cent Made in Nigeria, proving that world-class testing technology can be built locally.
