Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Pantami has urged the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau, NDPB to ensure data protection, privacy and confidentiality of citizens in the country.
The NDPB is expected to enforce compliance with the provisions of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulations 2019 (NDPR).
The Minister stated at the at the official lunch of NDPB’s Logo, Website and Core values, in Abuja, Nigeria
He emphasised that the data protection should not only be centered within the public sectors but also across the private sectors.
He said it is a great achievement for Nigeria to have a full-fledged institution of government as a parastatal that has been mandated to ensure the protection and privacy of our data in this country.
“If you go to the 2021 performance report of NDPB, it clearly shows that at the end of 2021, we were able to create over 8 thousand jobs in this country, in addition to registering 103 data protection compliance officers in this county, in addition, filing over 1300 audit by institutions, and at that time, the market value within the subsector was over N3 billion,” he said.
Pantami revealed that that data protection, privacy and confidentiality, were already mentioned in existing laws in various agencies of the country hence the need for coordination by NDPB.
The Minister said the plan of having the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation was more of creating awareness that any data under the control of the government is trust that can never be breached.
“Our plan of coming with Nigerian Data Protection Regulation was more of creating awareness to our citizens to know that any data under our control is a trust and we must treat it as a trust, failure to do that will not be tolerated by the government, there must be a form of sanction whenever we fail to comply with that trust.
NDPB has been mandated by the government to ensure the coordination of all the existing laws in which data protection, data privacy or data confidentiality has been mentioned,” he said.
He urged Nigerians to appreciate what the country has achieved so far, despite the challenges facing the country noting that Nigeria has achieved a lot in the area of data protection as it was the first in Africa to come up with such subsidiary legislation in data protection and privacy.
The National Commissioner, NDPB, Dr. Vincent Olatunji, revealed that the mandate of data protection had a strategic roadmap that would provide the turning point in Nigeria’s data privacy.
He said it is also subsidiary legislation to the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Act 2007 to increased awareness about the need for data protection and privacy.
The National Commissioner therefore said the agency will undertake widespread sensitization campaigns on the provisions of the NDPR and the imperatives of respecting data privacy.
“The sensitization campaigns will target at both data subjects to educate them on their rights, and data processors to enlighten them on their respective obligations and penalties for non- compliance under the NDPR”
“What we are doing today is to give a brand, to give an identity to the bureau and to tell the world our mandate charged by Mr President through the Minister in terms of identity, brand and core value,” He assured.
Dr .Olatunji, however, sought the support of stakeholders in achieving its mandate.
The Director General NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa who was represented by the Director Financial Management and Control of the Agency Umar Ibrahim pledged the support of the NITDA in assisting the NDPB in carrying ou its mandate effectively .
