The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC and Microsoft on Thursday April 30, signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, in their continued effort to curb internet crime and piracy in Nigeria. Though there was an initial MoU signed by the two organisations  in 2005 which led to the arrest and conviction of several internet fraudsters, the new agreement comes with additional benefits that will further strengthen the fight against internet crime and piracy a statement by Femi Babafemi, EFCC’s spokesman has revealed.

Speaking at the event, Mrs Farida Waziri, chairman EFCC  said internet crime and piracy were capable of undermining Nigeria’s economic development and ability to attract foreign investment. “Image is perception. When you perceive someone as fraudulent, you do everything to put that person at arms length. So I am particularly happy that this is happening today,” she said adding that “through this coalition with Microsoft Nigeria and by demonstrating leadership in the fight against internet crime and piracy, we will continue to work together in our quest to attain the national vision of turning Nigeria into an IT-enabled economy that is just and prosperous.”

Waziri revealed that efforts were being made to redirect the intelligence and energy of the youths involved in piracy to purposeful living. “In the continuation and strengthening of our relationship with Microsoft, we will strive to succeed at redirecting the energy of the youths of Nigeria from cybercrime towards positive online engagements to ensure that Nigeria is removed from future internet crime reports,” she revealed.

Some of the additional benefits that come with the new MoU include an extended scope of the partnership to cover the fight against software piracy across Nigeria and to involve the Advance Fee Coalition (Microsoft, yahoo, Moneygram and  African Development Bank.); partnership with Advance Fee Coalition designed to curb internet scams, identify theft, financial scams and spam as well as software piracy.

The agreement also entails that EFCC will host the first ever West Africa Internet Fraud Summit in Abuja in November 2009 which will be financed by Microsoft. The summit will provide an annual forum for deliberations on global fight against cybercrime in the West African region. The EFCC will leverage on this to partner with the Advance Fee Coalition to finance the development of intelligent application/software that will track scam emails and explore the possibility of shutting down affected webmail addresses  and the possibility of exporting the EFCC model to other West African Countries.

Emmanuel Onyeje, Country Manager for Microsoft Nigeria, who led the Microsoft team commended Mrs Waziri for doing a fantastic job. He said they realized that they needed to extend the scope of the partnership. “In Nigeria, internet scams, identity theft, financial scams and spam are unfortunately still too prevalent. All of this, along with rampant software piracy, undermines Nigeria’s economic development and ability to attract foreign investment,” he said. Onyeje bemoaned the activities of pirates which he said have hampered development as they deny the people and government of legitimate income.  “People and businesses across Nigeria suffer in the hands of these pirates. Honest resellers lose out on sales, on tax revenue, which could be reinvested into the country,” Onyeje said.

Recognizing the impact of software piracy on the economy, Microsoft and the EFCC also agreed to combine efforts to  develop and implement programmes to educate the public on the consequences associated with infringement of software copyrights; implementing capacity building for institutions involved in fighting software piracy; strengthen awareness of the importance of intellectual property rights, combine efforts to identify; investigate and prosecute suspected software pirates and ensure public awareness of the benefits of genuine software for local businesses.