Businesses lose revenue to misinformation menace — OPSN

Member associations under the aegis of the Organised Private Sector have decried the financial and reputational damage suffered by business entities due to the unending menace of misinformation targeted at its members.

The OPSN stated this during a roundtable discussion on disinformation in Nigeria’s private sector.

The OPSN, an umbrella organisation of Business Membership Organisations, representing the interest of the Private Sector in Nigeria, said it collaborated with the Centre for International Private Enterprise to engage the service of Nextier, an Africa-focused public policy consulting firm, to conduct a study on the impact of disinformation on Nigeria’s private sector companies.

In his keynote presentation, the Founding Partner, Nextier, Patrick Okigbo said the private sector is highly susceptible to disinformation campaigns, resulting in loss of customer revenues and that the damage may linger even after the information is debunked.

According to him, disinformation creates a significant negative impact on Nigerian businesses. and its most critical impacts include reputational damage to the targeted business, employee or customer disaffection, loss of business, and legal challenges.

He also stated that misinformation can lead to the closure or suspension of business operations and negatively impact the economic sector.

Speaking with journalists on the sidelines of the event, Okigbo noted that beyond the conversations, the organised private sector would need to design a framework that would allow it to seek penalties against perpetrators of misinformation.

Okigbo said, “Some of the ideas that came out of today’s discussion is that the OPSN can set up a platform, and that platform will do a couple of things — one, it will monitor chatter, and as soon as we pick up the chatter. If you work with ethical hackers you can narrow down who did it. Once you identify who did it, you can then bring a penalty on them.

“Nigeria’s legal system is not as robust as we desire. So, if we pass through the law courts, it might take time for you to get a judgment. The OPSN needs to set up its own penalty system, where it can sanction the perpetrator while the Nigerian legal system takes its course.”

On his part, the Director-General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Segun Ajayi-Kadir said the OPSN would continue to drive campaigns against misinformation against the private sector.

He said, “We ensure that we create enough awareness that will make people look forward to getting the facts of the matter. At some point, we will think of government legislation that will make people liable for whatever damage they are doing to our businesses.

“The consultant gave examples of businesses that have lost grants or closed because of disinformation. I think we can address this collectively and make it better, the toll on individual industries will be too much if they do it themselves.”