Nigeria needs 500,000 data specialists – NDPC

The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has emphasized that there is a current demand for an additional 500,000 data protection officers in Nigeria to address the existing skills gap.

NDPC’s National Commissioner, Dr. Vincent Olatunji, revealed this information in Abuja on Monday.

On January 8, the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) issued letters to the Heads of Polytechnics and Monotechnics, instructing the unbundling of the HND Computer Science course into four specialized areas.

The specified areas comprise Artificial Intelligence, Networking and Cloud Computing, Software and Web Development, along with Cybersecurity and Data Protection.

“I am glad that this is coming at this time because it is like giving credence to what we are doing and identifying the areas we need to focus on.

“There is a deficit of manpower in these areas and in an area like the Data protection, we need  minimum of 500,000 Data protection officers.

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“The certified ones in the country are not more than 10,000 hence the dire need for experts in the area to bridge skills gap,’’ Olatunji said.

Olatunji mentioned that the commission is actively establishing a platform for trainers to collaborate, identifying specific institutions such as universities and polytechnics for the training of data protection officers.

He also said that the five strategic pillars of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, including innovation, entrepreneurship and capital, had AI development as its major component.

Olatunji emphasized the importance of updating existing curriculums to align with global best practices for enhanced competitiveness. He expressed the commission’s willingness to collaborate with NBTE to achieve this goal.