By: Zacharia Jalloh,

 Strategic Communications Unit-MIC

The Minister of Information and Communications Honourable Mohamed Rahman Swaray made an inspection tour of the New NATCOM Building at Hill Station today, Thursday 26th August 2021.

The Minister was joined by senior staff of the Ministry which includes the Permanent Secretary Mr Kwame Yankson, Acting Director of Communications Mr Mumini Jalloh and the Director-General of NATCOM Mr Daniel Kaitibi to inspect the progress of the building

The visit was primarily initiated by the Minister to see how far the work has gone as a supervisory Ministry and most importantly to provide a space in the building for the installation of the National Computer Security and Incidence Response Team(NCSIRT) to enable tracking down of cybercrimes.

It would be recalled that  Parliament unanimously enacted the Cyber Security and Crime Act 2021 this year and one of the key components of the Act was to provide a National Computer Security and Incidence Response Team to track down cyber crimes.

The NCIRT will be supported by ECOWAS and EU to serve as the national infrastructure to strengthen the fight against cybercrimes and related matters. The government of Sierra Leone should provide the office space for the installation of NCSIRT.

The Director-General of NATCOM identified a space to the Minister which was examined by the Acting Director of Communications and it was approved by him.

According to Minister Swaray, there is an ongoing training for Judges and law enforcement officers on how to handle matters related to cybercrime. The Minister added that eight (8) Sierra Leoneans were sent on training in Accra, Ghana on how to operate and handle the NCSIRT. "We are far ahead and ready as a nation to receive this installation," the Minister asserted.

The Cyber Security and Crime Act 2021 await the assent of the President.