The Association of Licensed Data Protection Organisations of Nigeria (ALDAPCON) has advocated for speedy passage of Nigeria’s Data Protection Bill as the country pursues its digital transformation agenda.
The Chairman of the Association, Mr Ivan Anya who made the call in a press conference in Abuja, the nation’s capital said the Data Protection bill when passed into law, would address the data privacy and confidentiality of Nigerians, enable secure dataflow, economic development, improve national security, job creation and better global positioning.
He explained that this would also enable data processors and controllers to have significant clarification of duties and responsibility for the protection of the rights of data subjects
“From inception of our work in the industry we actually face a whole lot of level of resistance, some of them are still there, some are still waiting for sectoral regulators to advise them as to what direction they should take not understanding why they should ensure compliance.
“We also have the issue of technicalities prevalent within the ecosystem, internet facing solutions and instances where businesses have a hosting of Nigerians data outside of the country. You need to ensure that such hosts of Nigerians data are hosted are in full compliance with the Nigerian data protection regulation.”
“Another key one that would have been of big issue is the absence of a statutory law which we are hopeful that as soon as the data protection bill is passed will put paid to a whole lot of the technical and procedural issues we faced in terms of more bite in compliance and will help Nigeria meet greater global Data Protection adequacy,” Mr Anya stated
Mr Anya stressed that the bill is expected to contribute to the legal foundations of the digital economy of Nigeria and its participation in the regional and global economies through the beneficial, trusted use of personal data as well as help mitigate issues relating to data leakage and ensure confidentiality and privacy of data
Speaking on the objectives of the association, Mr Anya said Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCOs) under the umbrella body ALDAPCON as the data privacy practitioners in the country, focus on driving data compliance in the industry which includes providing credible and authoritative data protection advisory services to government, private and public organisations in Nigeria
“We are currently within our second year running since inception and we have been working with the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau, NDPB in championing and guiding data protection practice in Nigeria.
“The data protection compliance model is the only one of its type globally and no other country currently practices what we do. It is called the Public Private Partnership, PPP arrangement where the supervising authority the NDPB have exceeded some of its functions to the DPCOs that will have to go to business organisations to assist them implement the NDPR compliance requirements starting with the mandatory annual data protection compliance audit and fillings.” The Chairman explained
He further said the association is helping create awareness on the importance of Data Protection as well as the provision of data protection laws and regulatory services in Nigeria adding that ALDAPCON members also provide certification trainings in data protection as well as the implementation and filling of remediation gaps that may arise in the course of each annual data protection compliance audit.
Commenting on the recent memo issued by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), directing Ministries, Departments and Agencies to comply with the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR), The Chairman applauded the initiative by the government saying that this would ensure citizens’ data is properly safeguarded, as government agencies hold the bulk of data in the country and will chat effective ways to promote compliance and implementation in the country, especially in government business.
He said that the initiative will drive innovation which will in turn create more jobs for young people in Nigeria.
Mr Anya noted that the data privacy sector has recorded significant achievements, currently between 2020 and 2021 in terms of returns and fillings. With respect to compliance status for 2022, we are hopeful that by the time the 2022 report is made public by the Bureau during the Data Privacy week of 2023, the compliance level should look better.
He lauded the efforts of the supervising authority, the Nigerian Data Protection Bureau (NDPB) under the leadership of the National Commissioner Dr. Vincent Olatunji for various initiatives in guiding the growing data protection ecosystem in Nigeria.
The Sectary of the Association, Mr Abdullaziz Aliyu Ari disclosed that the Association is coming up with standards to guide the practice of members providing service in the industry.
“We are equally developing capacity within the ecosystem and most importantly creating awareness on how to assist the ecosystem comply with the requirements of the regulation.
“Well, for now we try to focus mostly on public and private sectors as well, but like I said with the memo that has been out now it will bridge the gap in the public sector.
“The Private sector has been very more responsive in terms of compliance but with this memo, more will be achieved.” He added
PIAK
