Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Office a Counter-Terrorism (Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵOCT) held, in collaboration with the National Counter-Terrorism Center of Nigeria, the first in a series of nine workshops to be organized in 2026 on public-private partnerships to address the use of new technologies for terrorist purposes.
The workshop was held in Abuja on 20 and 21 April 2026 under the CT TECH+ initiative, which is jointly implemented by Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵOCT, through its Global Counter-Terrorism Programme on Cybersecurity and New Technologies, and the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL). The initiative, funded by the European Union, aims to strengthen law enforcement capacities to respond to the increasing use of new technologies for terrorist purposes, while protecting human rights and in a gender-responsive manner.
The workshop in Abuja focused on strengthening law enforcement partnerships with private technology companies on incident response and investigations. It follows the CT TECH+ training of Nigerian law enforcement officials mandated with counter-terrorism on open-source information, dark web investigations, cryptocurrencies investigations, as well as on artificial intelligence, building a core group of officials able to provide in-house training to their counterparts.
Attendees included 26 officials from Nigerian law enforcement agencies mandated with countering terrorism, as well as 10 officials from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, INTERPOL, Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), and the private sector.
During the opening session, the NCTC National Coordinator, Major General Adamu Garba Laka, emphasized that ¡°the increasing exploitation of digital platforms, encrypted communications, and other emerging technologies by terrorist actors underscores the urgent need for sustained collaboration between governments and the private sector. No single entity can address these challenges alone. Iti s only through shared responsibility and coordinated action like this initiative that we can effectively mitigate these threats.¡±
The Head of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵOCT Global Counter-Terrorism Programme on Cybersecurity and New Technologies, Ms. Akvile Giniotiene, expressed the hope that ¡°workshop will help Nigeria build robust public-private partnerships that respect operational requirements of law enforcement agencies and business protocols of information and communications technology (ICT) companies to enhance our collective capacity to prevent and counter terrorism.¡±
During the workshop, government officials and participants from the private sector shared good practices and discussed practical issues in furthering public-private-partnership cooperation when it comes to countering terrorism. They also participated in a tailored tabletop exercise, based on the CT TECH ¡°Guide for Establishing Law Enforcement Cooperation with Technology Companies in Countering Terrorism.¡±
CT TECH+ responds to the eighth review of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (A/RES/77/298), which calls on the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism and relevant Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact entities to support Member States, upon request, in building capacity to address the challenges and opportunities of new technologies in preventing and countering terrorism, including with full respect human rights.
CT TECH+ also supports implementation of the Pact for the Future, in particular Action 24(b) through which Member States committed to ¡°address the threat posed by the misuse of new and emerging technologies, including digital technologies and financial instruments, for terrorist purposes.¡±
