The National Commissioner, Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB), Vincent Olatunji, has solicited for legal support to facilitate the speedy passage of the data protection bill.
He made the appeal at the closing ceremony of a three-day Workshop on Data Protection and Legal Drafting organised by the Digital Identification For Development Project (ID4D) in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Olatunji emphasised the need to ensure that the custodian of data information and those given the information are safeguarded and protected.
“This will improve our global competitiveness because a lot of countries now have their data protection law and supervisors overseeing those places. We have held workshops to sensitise and ensure that all stakeholders are involved for way forward.
“This is to create awareness in the law about to be passed, to build capacity and share knowledge, which needs to be globally competitive.”
The Project Coordinator, Nigeria Digital ID4D Project, Mr Solomon Odole, stated that the programme was organised to strengthen the legal and institutional framework in the country.
“We believe in proper engagement in what we do. We strongly believe that if stakeholders are properly carried along we will always and timely achieve whatever we want to accomplish. Stakeholders must be put first and that is what we have been doing to get results and the stakeholders we have been dealing with are wonderful.
“We believe that FMOJ is a critical stakeholder in this whole process so we want to work in synergy with the ministry to see that the bill is passed by the end of this year,” he said.
The Director of the Legal Drafting Department, FMOJ, Ms Ifunanya Nwajagu, said that there was no sustainable development without data.
Nwajagu commended the NDPB and ID4D for putting the training together and assured to work in synergy to move the project forward from the legal angle.
“We are beginning to understand that we can not have sustainable development in any sector without data. Data is required to be able to compute the present and future. Without knowing where you are you cannot know where you are going
“We need to protect the data as we give them out that is why the NDPB is very crucial. We will do and what we can to see that it is being passed into law by this assembly,” she said.
The Data Protection Bill is for an Act to establish the Data Protection Commission charged with the responsibility for the protection of personal data, rights of data subjects, regulation of the processing of personal data
The primary objective of this Act is to establish and provide an efficient regulatory framework for the protection of personal data, regulate the processing of information relating to data subjects, and safeguard their fundamental rights and freedoms as guaranteed under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
PIAK
