Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is preparing to institutionalize data protection in Nigeria. NITDA has begun the process of licensing and partnering with qualified institutions to set standards, issue certificates on data protection skills in Nigeria, and prepare exams. These processes make part of the implementation of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) which is a subsidiary of data legislation in Nigeria.
Mallam Kashifu Inuwa, the Director-General of National Information Technology Development Agency has strongly advised during a hybrid symposium organized by Lagos State DPOs, on the need for Data Protection Officers (DPOs). He had said, “Data protection officers should constantly keep themselves abreast of trending innovations in keeping their data credible”.
He said it was important to incorporate artificial intelligence into data protection to allow its accuracy and consistency. He went ahead to disclose that there is a need to sieve and compartmentalize data elements that will determine the cloud adoption strategy to be used. He also added that there is a need to create professionals in the data protection world to meet global standards.
“One of the ideas we are mulling over is to have an industry association for DPOs and the proposed DPO forum that would be a peer review mechanism and a point of contact with regulators to shape policies and propose standards for the industry”, the DG said.
According to Kashifu, since the NDPR was issued in 2019, NITDA has empowered DPOs by drafting. Engaging the public, and publishing the NDPR Implementation Framework, is to shed light on the provisions of NDPR for easy applications and interpretation.
He added that the Agency’s partnership with the DPOs has created more than 7,600 new employment roles in the data protection sector. “We envisage that Nigeria would lead Africa by certifying 350,000 people with local and global competence in data protection by 2024”, Inuwa affirmed.
Her Excellency, Ms. Patricia Adusie-Poku, executive commissioner GDPC has lauded NITDA for the great initiative in organizing the symposium to add knowledge value to Data Protection Officers. She said DPOs are like risk managers in their organizations and that it is their responsibility to ensure that all requirements are in place to checkmate data breaches and to promote data protection.
Some of the attendees of the symposium are as follows; Mr. Yaya Itai of First Bank Plc, Mre Moyosore Jide-Taiwo from Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Ridwan Oloyede from TechHive Advisory, Mr. Bharat Soni from GTCO, DR Alexander Anago, and some other data protection officers from different organizations.
Data Protection in Nigeria To Be Institutionalized By NITDA
