Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami FNCS FBCS FIIM has said that it has become imperative to implement legislations that will ensure the protection and confidentiality of citizens data as part of the government’s responsibility to protect the lives and property of Nigerians.
Prof. Pantami made his assertion when he flagged off the “National Validation on Data Protection Bill” workshop organised by the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB) in collaboration with the Nigeria Digital Identification for Development (ID4D) at the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) Conference Centre, Abuja.
In keynote address, Pantami said that as part of efforts to sustain the country’s digital economy growth, it was crucial to have legislation that would ensure data protection considering the amount of data being generated in the country daily.
He said, “We know the data generated today is mind-boggling and we must therefore have regulations in place to ensure confidentiality and privacy of data being generated”.
Speaking enthusiasticalness about the journey so far on the implementation of the data protection bill, the Honorable Minister disclosed that the process began when he was the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the subsidiary legislation, Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) was enacted on 29th January 2019 based on the provision of NITDA Act 2007.
While speaking with an utmost sense of modesty, Pantami revealed that unprecedented achievements have been made with the NDPR in the areas of creating awareness, job creation, and revenue generation for the government amongst many others.
