Nigeria and the United Kingdom are deepening their cybersecurity partnership to strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to combat AI-driven cyber threats, financial cybercrime and attacks on critical national infrastructure. Through the UK-funded Africa Cyber Programme and the broader UK-Nigeria Cyber Memorandum of Understanding, both countries have expanded cooperation in intelligence sharing, cyber resilience, digital forensics, policy development and workforce development, positioning Nigeria as one of Africa’s leading cybersecurity hubs. Stakeholders say the partnership has moved beyond isolated training programmes to become a long-term institution-building initiative designed to leave Nigeria with sustainable local capacity. The intervention comes as Nigeria’s cyber threat landscape continues to evolve, with financially motivated cybercrime targeting banks and fintech companies remaining the country’s biggest digital security challenge, while ransomware attacks against critical infrastructure, including energy facilities and cloud-hosted services, continue to increase. In an interview with BusinessDay Newspapers in Abuja, Lawrence Devlin, Head of Counter-Terrorism British High Commission West Africa, noted that the partnership has focused on building the institutional foundations required for Nigeria to independently identify, investigate and respond to cyber threats rather than relying on external support. A major outcome of the collaboration has been the strengthening of Nigeria’s cyber governance architecture through the review of the National Incident Response Plan, development of cyber maturity frameworks for the protection of Critical National Information Infrastructure and foundational work on the country’s National Digital Forensics Policy framework. Devlin said these initiatives have significantly improved Nigeria’s ability to standardise digital forensic investigations, ensuring that electronic evidence gathered during cyber investigations can withstand scrutiny in both domestic and international courts. Another landmark achievement has been the development of highly specialised Nigerian cybersecurity professionals. “Through the programme, four officers of the National Cybersecurity Coordination Centre (NCCC) became among the first SIM3-certified cybersecurity auditors in Africa. SIM3 is an internationally recognised framework for