From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Federal Government has said that it is working to establish a national certification body to license data protection officers in the country.
National Commissioner, Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Mr Vincent Olatunji disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to Olatunji, the project is contained in the Commission’s Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan which will run from 2023 to 2027.
Speaking at the unveiling ceremony of the document, which also doubled as a workshop for data protection officers in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), the NC said the initiative would help to reduce the cost of acquiring foreign certifications as well as bridge the capacity gap in the nation’s data privacy space.
He said: “The data protection field is a global thing now and we need to have professionals who are certified, who are qualified and who are experts to work in this sector.
“All of us that are certified in this country as we speak, have foreign certifications. The certification that I have, I paid about 500 dollars to write the exam and I maintain my certification with about 100 dollars every year, and looking at the exchange rate, we are talking about over 600 thousand Naira. How many people can really afford that in Nigeria? We have the competence in the country to have our own home grown solutions and certifications that can be comparable to anyone around the globe.”
Olatunji further noted that unlike other certification bodies, the one of the country would be richer in content and delivery as it would be utilising five major regulatory instruments.
“In Nigeria, we are looking at our own act which is really guiding the data privacy sector in the country.
“We are looking at the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for comparison, we are looking at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) act of 2010 which actually mandated all ECOWAS countries to have their laws and set up their data protection authorities and we are also looking at the Malabo convention which was the platform where all African countries agreed to have their independent data protection laws and authorities. We are also looking at our general application directly. These are five major instruments that we are looking at to develop our own curriculum.”
Olatunji assured that: “So our own will be stronger, more more potent and bring more competence and we are working to ensure that the price is crashed to even one third of the about 600 thousand that we are talking about.”
The NC further pledged that the roadmap would be a game changer in the Nigeria data privacy space, saying, “We have about 69 major initiatives and activities cut across the five pillars in the areas of governance, awareness and human capital development.
“Also, in the area of the ecosystem and technology we’re looking at having home-grown solutions in terms of applications that can drive a lot of things especially the law itself, enforcement and investigations. There are a a lot of solutions that can come out of that.”