Nigeria Data Protection Regulation Supplementary regulation in the offing – NITDA

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA)is working a supplementary regulation and a more detailed framework of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation.

This was disclosed yesterday by the DG, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi at the Africa Tech Leaders webinar series with the theme: Covid-19 Pandemic: The Public Sector Outlook.

The DG stated that the NDPR which was issued in January 2019 is part of the digitization initiatives in the broader agenda of the National digital economy.

Speaking as one of the distinguished panellists during the Africa Tech Leaders webinar session, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi gave a good account of the digitization trajectory of the Government, which predates the pandemic as follows:

• The launch in 2017, of the National Economic recovery and growth plan, which identified ICT as a key enabler.
• The separation, empowerment and repositioning of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy by the Federal Government to fulfil a broader agenda of the Digital Economy.
• The launch of the National Digital Economy plan as a blueprint of the National Digital Transformation agenda.
• The launch of the Nigeria Enterprise Architecture and policy master plan.
• Implementation of other ancillary digital transformation initiatives by the Government like the TSA (Treasury Single Account), IPPIS (Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information), GIFMIS (Government Integrated Financial Management Information System).

He informed that in the midst of the pandemic, NITDA had leveraged some of these initiatives to conceptualize and execute the launch of the NITDA virtual Academy platform and the Nigeria Covid-19 Innovation Challenge.

While acknowledging that the pandemic is generally accelerating digital transformation, he, however, highlighted the following as key inhibitors to the effective adoption of ICT:

• Funding – The dual impact of the pandemic (Health & Economic) on Government funding.
• Digital Literacy – Low or poor knowledge on how to connect to Government digital services.
• Resistance to Change – Need to embrace change
• Implementation strategy – Need for phased implementation

On specific initiatives by NITDA towards the actualization of the digital Economy goals, he stated the following:

• Implementation of the public policy rules for the migration of public institutions to Government digital services.
• Development of a framework to help Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) assess digital services.
• Implementation of the Cloud computing policy guidelines on ICT projects for public institutions to enhance end-to-end digitization.
• Implementation of a detailed supplementary regulatory framework for the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR)

In conclusion, he shared in the optimism that the pandemic has provided the opportunity for the acceleration of the broader vision of the National transformation strategy with ICT as a key enabler for economic development and growth.