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The finance sector is ahead of other sectors in terms of compliance to the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) even as industry record shows that data privacy audit compliance is on the rise in Nigeria.
The NDPR, issued by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), is Nigeria’s primary data protection legislation. It provides the legal framework for data protection compliance requirements and managing breaches including the imposition of penalties for defaulters.
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Since 25th January 2019 when it became the effective regulation for data protection compliance, all public and private entities that process the personal data of more than 1000 data subjects in a period of six months and 2000 data subjects in a period of 12 months must submit a Data Protection Audit Report to the NITDA.
“Before the advent of NDPR, organisations had no functional accountability system for data privacy. NDPR created a functional accountability system for data privacy. From zero data privacy audit compliance in 2018 to 635 in 2020 and over 1,230 audit compliance in 2021.
According to Director General/CEO, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, this week in Abuja while unveiling week’s long activities to mark the National Privacy Week, the finance sector accounts for 41% of compliance to NDPR.
His words: “The top-performing sectors are:
- Finance 41%
- Consultancy 9.2%
- ICT and Digital Media 8.8
- Manufacturing 7.9%
“What we can glean from the foregoing is a growing level of awareness. More and more, organisations and citizens are becoming conscious of the power of data and the need to regulate data processing in the interest of both individual and national security.”
The NITDA’s boss said Nigeria is steadiliy gaining positive international reputation in data privacy a way that positions it more effectively to leverage oppurtunities in the global data economy.
“With a population estimated to be over 200 million citizens strong, our footprints in data processing traverse every conceivable plan of human endeavour. What we do or fail to do cannot go unnoticed. Gladly, our measures in data protection are in tune with the emerging norms on data privacy in the international community.
“In less than two years of active implementation of NDPR in Nigeria, we were admitted to the Common Thread Network (a Network of Data Protection Authorities of Commonwealth countries). We also got accepted as full member of the Network of African Data Protection Authorities (NADPA). Our contribution at the Africa Union’s Policy and Regulatory Initiative for Digital Africa (PRIDA) Data Protection Laws’ Harmonisation Work Group led to Nigeria being considered for inclusion in the list of countries where a developed framework for data laws harmonisation was tested.”
