Is Nigeria the next pig butchering hotspot?

also ft; e-governance is an adjective, not a noun

Olatunji Olaigbe

Noah Aderoju

, and

Olatunji Alameen

Feb 22, 2025

CybAfriqué is a space for news and analysis on cyber, data, and information security on the African continent.

HIGHLIGHTS

Is Nigeria the next pig butchering hotspot?

Last December, the Nigeria Economic and Financial Crime Commision, EFCC, carried out a 792-person arrest on a crypto investment cybercrime syndicate in Lagos, including Chinese nationals who led the operations. It’s one of its largest ever, and court proceedings are showing that a sizable amount of the accused in this case are not willing participants in the scheme.

Lillian Jacob’s testimony in the case against the foreigner-led cybercrime syndicate, as reported by TechNext, claims that she had been lured to the scheme as a “customer service” job and had gone to the interview location with her resume, only to be hired without any formal procedure apart from a timed computer literacy test. She was then given a script to pretend as Alani Thomas and build rapport with European targets for a while, before passing the victims on to her Chinese supervisors.

The result of this syndicate’s work is what people familiar with cyber fraud call the “Pig butchering scam.” Pig butchering scams combine romance scams and investment frauds by first building trust with a victim, and then funneling them to fake investments, often in crypto. Syndicates that carry out these scams are especially popular across Southeast Asia, especially in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, where these criminal groups steal about $43.8 billion annually. In 2024 alone, Pig butchering schemes on the Ethereum network cost the industry over $5.5 billion across 200,000 identified cases.

The EFCC “Operation Eagle Flush” is perhaps Nigeria’s strongest confrontation with the existence and the apparent flourishing of pig butchering syndicates. The arrests include some 200 Asians, including from China, the Philippines, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Indonesia.

Unwilling labor is a huge part of pig butchering syndicates, which lets them funnel more potential victims. In this case, the syndicate recruits a large number of unsuspecting digitally literate youths like Jacobs, but it’s not far-fetched from Nigeria’s current cybercrime clime in the country. Nigerian princes are already popular and revered as some of the world’s most prolific romance scammers, BEC threat actors, and blackmail scams.

Migrating Africans have historically also ended up in these scam rings in Myanmar.

Nigeria’s e-governance scheme goes on another cycle of promises

Nigeria failed to deliver its e-governance infrastructure and now targeting 2027 for rollout, and it’s not the first time this has been delayed.

The problem with the terminology “e-governance” is that it's a noun used to describe an adjective. Simply put, e-governance involves the use of ICT and digital infrastructure by the government to enhance accountability, and accessibility, create awareness, and ensure transparency in the management of government business. With effective e-governance infrastructure, a lot of redundant physical processes and bottlenecks will be eliminated making governance procedures more modern, transparent, and efficient. The e-governance conversation bears a lot of parallels with the case of digital IDs in Africa, which is something we’ve explored before. In fact, the digitization of ID systems is considered a part of e-governance.

ICYMI: Hot take; there's a problem with digital IDs in Africa

In theory, e-governance systems will improve transparency and civic capacity, but like digital IDs, they also require a level of infrastructural development such as electricity and reliable internet access in order to be viable. Hence, it’s not a surprise that Nigeria’s e-governance agenda is synonymous with failed promises and scattered projects. Back in 2019, an e-government master plan was launched, promising several solutions and delivery of initiatives like the OneGov.net initiative to combine various public services under a single digital umbrella. But many of the promises were unfulfilled and initiatives stalled, failed or underdelivered, owing to different reasons, including political will.

The new 2027 target, of course after years of failed attempts is to digitize at least 75% of government services, according to the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).

It promises that Nigerians will be able to access all government services digitally through an online portal, including licenses, international passports, tax payments, health services, and social benefits.

Mauritius is still the African country with the highest overall E-Government Development Index - (EGDI) with a score of 0.72. Trailing behind it is South Africa, Seychelles, Tunisia and Ghana.

A balanced approach to developing foundational areas like infrastructure, skills, and the legal and regulatory framework for e-governance rather than just focusing on one aspect of infrastructure building is crucial to significant e-governance development in Africa. According to recent data, Nigeria is barely above the average e-governance score for Africa 0.40 - 0.42 with just a 0.44 score far below countries like Kenya, South Africa, Botswana and Ghana, its neighbor.

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