Digital economy: Nigerians’ data, identity must be protected ― NDPB

The National Commissioner/CEO of the National Data Protection Bureau (NDPB), Dr Vincent Olatunji has said that the identity of Nigerians must be protected as the country continues making progress in digital economy.

Dr Olatunji stated this at the National Validation Workshop on Data Protection Law held in Abuja.

He said after the establishment of the NDPB, President Muhammadu Buhari mandated the Bureau to ensure the enactment of legislation to guide the issue of data privacy and protection in Nigeria.

“We have laid a foundation for the digital economy in Nigeria, what we are already doing in this sector, and everything we do in the digital economy is all about identity and this identity must be protected and safeguarded.

“One of the major mandates given to us by the president is to ensure the enactment of principal legislation to guide the issue of data privacy and protection in Nigeria.

“What we are doing is to galvanize ideas to ensure that we involve all stakeholders to be part of this process so that it will get a smooth passage at the National Assembly and when it gets to the President for assent, we won’t get any issue”, he said.

On his part, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Pantami, said the process of getting a full-fledged Bureau for data protection started in 2019 with the National Data Protection Regulation as subsidiary legislation enacted based on the provision of the NITDA Act 2007.

He said the subsidiary legislation was enforced immediately, and a lot has been achieved in the area of creating awareness, and job creation among many others including revenue generation for government through training and retraining.

The Minister said because of the huge data being generated, the country must have legislation in place to ensure that there is confidentiality and privacy of that data so that the data will not be abused.

“The first industrial revolution was about data generation, citizens submit their data to government or private institutions, some countries commercialize data and that is why we are very proactive in Nigeria in order to ensure that there is no vacuum.

“We came up with the Nigeria Data Protection regulation and relying on our regulatory powers, immediately commenced enforcement because subsidiary legislation is considered a law up to the Supreme Court

“The reason for having this is to ensure that there is no vacuum. In order to ensure confidentiality, privacy and security of our citizens’ data, we commenced the process of having principal legislation in Nigeria Data Protection law”, he noted.

Pantami however, stated that the data being generated in Nigeria today is in terabytes and there must be legislation in place to ensure that this data being generated is confidential, secured and private.

“The 1999 Constitution specifically states that citizens’ correspondences and communication must be private and confidential and the Section 37 of the constitution, data protection was clearly mentioned except under the cybercrime 2015 where there is a provision of Lawful Intercept where security agencies establish a prima facie case before intercepting certain communication. It is a criminal offence to access data in Nigeria without permission.

“The Bill will be transmitted to the Federal Executive Council for deliberation and if approved by Federal Executive Council, will be transmitted to the National Assembly by the President to enable them kickstart the process of legislation”, he added.

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• Digital economy: Nigerians’ data, identity must be protected ― NDPB