The Minister of Economy and Digital Economy, Isa PantamiHe said Nigeria’s proposed data protection laws will enable the country to secure ownership of its data and bring additional value to Nigeria’s ICT value chain.
Pantami disclosed this on Tuesday during the Cross Border Data Protection workshop organized by the American Business Council in conjunction with Microsoft and attended by Nairametrics.
Represented by engineer Salisu Kakah, the minister highlighted the importance of data for Nigeria’s digital economy. According to him, data drives and guides digital innovations.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Data Protection Office, which was represented at the event, noted that the Data Protection Bill will allow data processors and data controllers significant clarification of their duties.
- “This facilitates the administration of the Data Protection Law and is implemented in a targeted manner through self-regulation, which is also subject to laws and transparency.” said the rep.
Regulation of the ICT sector: Commenting on government regulation of the ICT sector, the Minister clarified that the Federal Government is not in the ICT space to strangle innovation. He cited recent regulations that support innovation, including the proposed data protection bill.
- “We started working with stakeholders and issued standards for easy implementation by ecosystem actors. The FG has been working on the National Data Strategy, which was put in place to give Nigeria a sense of direction on how data can be used to innovate and improve economic activity.
- “Others include the National E-Commerce Policy, which helps Nigeria get access to an e-commerce policy that supports the use of data for SMEs, legally, whether it is corporate or retail data in collaboration with stakeholders” .
About the Data Protection Bill: Last month, the National Commissioner of the Nigerian Data Protection Bureau (NDPB), Dr. Vincent Olatunji, presented the draft National Data Protection Bill for further transmission to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) after a series of stakeholder engagements in a National Policy Dialogue, marked the end of the 3-month process of seeking input of the interested parties.
- The minister assured the commissioner and NDID4D coordinator that due diligence would be carried out on the bill to ensure its speedy approval by the National Assembly and eventual assent by President Muhammadu Buhari.
- The president of the ICT Commission of the Senate, Ibrahim Oseni, said that the bill “It would be in addition to contributing to the legal foundations of Nigeria’s digital economy and its participation in regional and global economies through the beneficial and trustworthy use of personal data.”