Digital Economy: FG Assures Data Protection, Privacy Laws

As the Federal Government of Nigeria extends its tent on Digital Economy, it assured citizens of effective privacy laws and protection of data.

Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami averred that regulations will be enacted to protect the digital rights of Nigerians.

Pantami who was represented by the National Commissioner/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau, Dr Vincent Olatunji gave the assurance during a roundtable discussion on Data Privacy and Protection organised by the Public & Private Development Center, PPDC in Abuja.

The minister disclosed that his ministry is in partnership with some regulatory bodies to ensure digital protection.   

With the global digital economy of over $5 trillion worth, Pantami noted that the activities done online must be regulated.  

He said, “How do we regulate the sector, how do we regulate what we do online, how do we protect the right to privacy or freedom of Nigerians? We must look into.

“We are aware that almost everything is going online every day. Nigeria has a total number of 104 online users and you know what that means. That’s over 50% to go every day to transact businesses and this calls the attention of all of us to ensure that we protect whatever we do and protect the rights, the freedom, kind of data and information we put online.

“That is why the Minister in 2019 issued the major data protection regulation which according to the convener and as acclaimed globally, is a major regulation that we have in the area of data protection in Nigeria as of today.”

Investors King gathered that stakeholders from Nigerian Communications Commission(NCC), National Information Technology Development Agency(NITDA), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) Civil Society Organisations(CSOs) and some other sectors have commenced efforts, engaging debates on data privacy with the focus of enlightening Nigerians.

Addressing the stakeholders, Patami said, “we must assiduously ensure that we have a proper strategic plan on what to do, how to do it, who does what and who are stakeholders.”

“We have a joint committee made up of about 10 regulatory bodies; we have NIDA, we have NCPC,  and others and they are working together and tackling issues of lenders and how they access information, data they lend money to.  We are already working and they will hear from us.

“Then, on having a law, a full law to drive the rights of citizens in Nigeria, a law actually went to the National Assembly about three years ago. But there are some things that were amended that we needed to make and one of the major priorities of this law is to ensure that this law is passed before the end of the current tenure of the current government.”

The CEO of Public & Private Development Center, Nkem Ilo, in her address, charged social media and gadget users to be careful about the personal information they disclose online.

Ilo further called on the Federal Government to cooperate with stakeholders to sensitise citizens on digital rights, data privacy and digital parenting as well as educating children by adding it to their school curriculum.

“Now is the time to focus on educating citizens. We have the National  Orientation Agency whose purpose is to educate, orient. We need those kinds of agencies to begin to tell us about what we should be aware of when signing documents. What will even constitute a violation of my right to protection, of my right to privacy? What will constitute that and when that has been violated where do I go?” she said.