The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) says Nigeria has more data protection experts per capital than any other African country.
The Director-General NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa disclosed this Abuja at a virtual meeting where he gave a review of the agency’s implementation of the country’s National Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) and the agency’s activities for the National Privacy Week.
Inuwa noted that “With the direction, we are moving on NDPR audit compliance filing, we are very glad that we have set out in the right way. Our strategy of licensing DPCOs is yielding bounteous fruits as Nigeria now has more data protection experts per capita than any other African country. Our survey also reveals that wealth is being generated through the DPCO scheme. Interestingly, this aligns with the President’s Muhammadu Buhari’s vision to diversify the economy, create sustainable jobs and develop the digital economy.”
The DG stated that the agency’s audit reports for the period 2019-2020 show the percentage of compliance among the number of filing entities.
These sectors include: Financial Services – 35%, Fast Moving Consumer Goods – 14%, Energy – 10%, Consultancy – 9%, ICT – 8% and Transport and logistics – 5% with others – 19%
He revealed that in the absence of a data protection Act, the agency will create a credible and workable framework to endure data protection.
“NITDA’s strategy is to create a workable, credible implementation process that would assist the National Assembly in its quest to pass a Data Protection Bill.”
According to him, Nigeria is now a full member of the Common Thread Network
“In December 2020, NITDA was appointed as a full member of the Common Thread Network (CTN). CTN is a network of Commonwealth nations’ data protection authorities. The CTN is hosted by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office. This strategic alliance would provide needed support in capacity development, mentoring, and cross border enforcement. The impact of this development will be amazingly limitless,“ the NITDA Boss stated.
He said while we await the passage of the Data Protection Bill, NITDA will continue to lay necessary structures to deepen data protection implementation in Nigeria.
“In light of the above, permit me to present some of our visions for the year 2021 as follows: Development of sectorial implementation toolkits – The objective here is to get sector stakeholders to agree on a single, workable template for compliance in their sector.
“Standardization of NDPR courses and training – We shall engage vigorous and experienced Nigerian based institutions that would help us standardize and accredit data protection and information security training and certification. We hope to develop a multi-billion naira sector that would create thousands of jobs for trainers, content providers and other professionals,“ Inuwa reiterated
The NITDA boss explained that the implementation of the NDPR has been faced with some challenges such as publicity, capacity and enforcement.
He, therefore, promised to vigorously work harder to improve on them this year.
“Our publicity and awareness still need more improvement. We will work more with you, the media to upscale our efforts. Another issue is capacity. While we have a few very dedicated staff, we still need a lot of capacity development and cross-breeding of ideas. We hope to get more partnership and support this year in order to fill this gap.
“Enforcement is another sour point. Our current efforts at enforcement is salutary but not nearly enough. We are considering all options to ensure we do not kill businesses, while also ensuring businesses do not kill Nigerians through wanton abuse of their data,“ the DG maintained
He used the opportunity to remind data controllers and processors of the annual audit report is March 15th this year.
“I want to use this opportunity to remind all data controllers and processors that the deadline for the filing of their annual data audit report is 15th March 2021. Non-filing is a punishable offence and we are set to fully enforce this provision this year,” Inuwa added.
PIAK
