By 
L-R: Managing Director, NIGCOMSAT, Tukur Mohammed Lawal; Prof Pantami; Dr Olatunji; Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi; and Postmaster General, NIPOST, Hon. Adepoju Adeyemi Sunday.
Nigeria’s data protection market is now valued in excess of N5.5 billion as Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami expressed confidence that a data protection law will boost investors’ confidence in the sector.
A data protection bill was recently been approved by the Federal Government as an Executive Bill for legislative action by the National Assembly.
RELATED: Nigeria ready for Global Data Privacy Day 2023 as NDPB hosts National Privacy Week
Pantami who spoke in Abuja, this weekend, at a media meet organised by the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB) to kick-start the National Privacy Week, said the week-long activities by the NDPB are designed to join the global community in raising awareness on the International Data Privacy Day.
According to him, Nigeria was the first African country to join the developed countries in celebrating the International Data Privacy Day to underscore its commitment to privacy issues and growth of the sector.
Nigeria’s data protection sector has recorded tremendous growth in the last few years, requiring legal guidance to protect investors, ensure its sustainability and global best practice, the minister said.
His words: “As of today, the data protection bureau has created many jobs by 2022. The value of it today is around 5.5 billion naira in Nigeria.
“It is a global best practice to have a data protection law in place, otherwise you will find it difficult to attract so many interventions that are of benefit to your country. Secondly, even potential investors today may ask questions whether you have data protection laws in your country or not. If you don’t have any data protection law in place they will feel uncomfortable coming to your country and investing because today, data is critical.”
Data protection law has become a barometer for the global community to measure countries’ readiness for digital economy investments, the minister stressed.
Whenever we engage with potential investors, we try to convince them of the need of coming to Nigeria to invest, and they always ask if we have data protection law, but we have subsidiary law, and many of them do agree with subsidiary law and at the same time, many disagree that subsidiary law is sufficient for them.”
This observation by prospective investors has made it urgent for Nigeria to have a substantive legislation for the sector, said Professor Pantami while explaining why his ministry with the federal government has remained committed to the passage of the data protection bill into law and the creation of a substantive agency to become a privacy ombudsman.
“The law about data protection is not in any way to punish our citizens, but rather to create awareness so that we will all be data compliant, that is why it is important. We are urged to comply and today because of awareness creation, reaching out to other institutions, sanctions and interrogating others, you will discover that the compliance rate is going higher,” the minister told his audience.
Earlier, the National Commissioner/CEO of the NDPB, Dr. Vincent Olatunji, said the gradual institutionalisation of data protection in the public sector has started with the issuance of a service-wide circular to all federal ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) mandating compliance to the provisions of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) and to drive awareness on data privacy amongst government institutions.
Olatunji said the Privacy Week aims to create a mass awareness on privacy practices while commending the minister for helping to drive a “culture of compliance” through his support and that of the president for setting up the bureau as well as getting the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for the Executive Bill to begin the legislative journey for a data protection law,
“The bureau has embarked on a sensitisation tour to different, Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) for compliance with the provisions of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation and also to keep them abreast of what the bureau is doing, as enshrined by the law in data protection, and to also get their buy-in,” the privacy ombudsman said adding that NDPB already has an aggressive awareness campaign in place with more than 50 public sector organisations that have benefitted from the awareness measures.
Also at the event were stakeholders and government functionaries that included
ID4D’s Project Coordinator, Musa Odole Solomon; Managing Director, NIGCOMSAT, Tukur Mohammed Lawal; Postmaster General, NIPOST, Hon. Adepoju Adeyemi Sunday; and the Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi.
