By Francis H. Murray
The Minister of Information and Communication Mohamed Rahman Swarray has disclosed that Sierra Leone is set to benefit from the first National Cyber Incident Reporting Center as part of the Cyber security package to the country.
Speaking at the weekly press conference organized by the Ministry on Thursday 25th March 2021, he revealed that: “for the first time in the history of our country, Sierra Leone through my lobbying will benefit from the first National Cyber Incident Reporting Center.’’
He said that added to the component of the cyber package, the project will be ensuring training for the law enforcement officers as well as the judiciary who will be dealing with volatile electronics evidence, its preservation, curation and amicability in the light of the fact that the bill is a new phenomenon.
The Minister stated that the project emanated out of what he referred to as a “compelling case” he made for Sierra Leone at the ECOWAS ministerial meeting at the Freetown International Conference Center, making the country one among two other West African countries to be chosen for hosting of the facility.
Citing the concerns of lawmakers in Parliament on the need for further consultations in order to deepen the public’s understanding of the proposed bill, he said that the only reason why there were observing ongoing debates on the bill now is because it has long been overdue.
He said that the proposed bill is one of the preconditions given by the World Bank and other development partners in 2013 that because landing the fiber would open up the country’s ICT to the rest of the world, three should be the necessary legislative and regulatory framework to manage its applicability.
“Sierra Leone was expected to have enacted the Electronic Transaction Act, Cyber Security Act, Data Protection Act and Electronic Communications Act. These four Acts were supposed to have been passed long before now together to ensure that we have the appropriate regulatory and legislative framework in place for this development. We did not pull it off,’’ he stated.
He added that as a government, they have realised that the they are not only responsible to provide physical protection for their citizens, but also provide protection in the cyber space, on and offline.
The Minister further stressed that the bill is designed to address the critical challenges and risks posed by cyber threats and to ensure safety of all Sierra Leoneans in a cyberspace that has been so volatile and left at the mercy of internet mischiefs.
He dismissed claims that the bill is worse that the Public Order Act and was aimed at encroaching into the rights and privacy of citizens, adding that the bill fully recognizes the rights of citizens with no intention of the government to muzzle free speech or the media.
He assured that the bill is tailored after best practices in Europe and in other parts of the world and that it is geared towards protecting the country’s critical national information, adding that the bill will determine punishment and fines where necessary for itself, and not to be determined by the Minister, as claimed by certain people.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (26/03/21)
