By 
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, has described as commendable, the level of compliance by government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) with the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) .
“The level of compliance is encouraging. Compliance is not yet 100 per cent but everyday there’s improvement. Our target is to raise awareness not to necessarily punish non-compliance,” said Pantami during a media interaction this week in Abuja.
While responding to a question on a recent software glitch experienced by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and its possible impact on data privacy, the minister explained that errors are understandably expected in the industry.
According to him, the identity management company has demonstrated a commendable working relationship with the NITDA on identity management. “As far as NIMC [matters is], we are satisfy with their level of compliance,” he added.
READ
Nigeria’s principal data protection legislation is the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation 2019 (“NDPR”).
“The NDPR was issued by the National Information Technology Development Agency (“NITDA/the Agency”) on 25 January 2019 pursuant to Section 32 of the NITDA Act 2007 as subsidiary legislation to the NITDA Act 2007.Jul 6, 2020”
The NDPR defines ‘personal data’ as ‘any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, etc.”
All public and private entities handling personal data of citizens or ‘data subject’ are expected to submit a data protection audit within specific time frame.
The NDPR is designed to ensure Nigeria is not isolated technologically and legally from global practice concerning data protection.
According to Pantami, Nigeria leads the continent in terms of institutional frameworks to address data privacy and protection, which are key requirements to building and sustaining a digital economy.
“Many African countries now copying Nigeria,” said the minister adding that NITDA was also relentlessly creating stakeholders awareness on strategic benefits of compliance to the NDPR.
A report by NITDA weeks back valued the data protection sector at N1.8 trillion.
There are 70 Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCO) licensed and they have helped to create over 2,700 new.
In the report, the Director General, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, revealed that the country was recording an impressive growth in data protection compliance with a verifiable database of statutory audit reports filed by 588 entities.
