The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) says being awarded the hosting right of Network of African Data Protection Authorities (NADPA) conference indicates international community’s confidence in Nigeria’s digital space.
Dr Vincent Olatunji, National Commissioner, NDPC, said this on Saturday in Abuja during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), while giving insight into the upcoming 8th edition of NADPA conference in Abuja.
The conference and annual general meeting is scheduled to hold from May 6 to 8, with the theme: “Balancing Innovation in Africa: Data Protection and Privacy in Emerging Technologies.’’
Data privacy and protection are a raft of measures taken to safeguard an individual’s personal information and ensure that its safe handling, access and use.
Olatunji said Nigeria had made progress since the beginning of its data protection journey in Nigeria in 2019 as the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) to the signing of Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) in 2023.
He said the Act had given the Nigerian data protection ecosystem more global credence, including the hosting right for the NADPA conference.
“When President Bola Tinubu signed the Data Protection Bill into law, that was a turning point for us in data privacy ecosystem in Nigeria.
“We have a lot of activities that we have put in place, in terms of awareness, capacity building, situating privacy as the mainstream economy in our digital economy.
“We now have global recognition such that development partners, the Global Privacy Assembly, World Bank, NADPA, ECOWAS are working with us.
“With Nigeria hosting the NADPA conference, we are going to showcase that Nigeria is ready for digital business, when you bring your business here, you will be assured that your data is secured.
“It is a way of creating confidence for investors, for business people to come and do business in Nigeria,’’ Olatunji said.
He said with the expected average number of 1000 delegates from 30 African countries, Europe, U.S., Asia, the the conference would promote tourism, culture and impact the nation’s economy many ways.
The NDPC boss said the meeting would also repose confidence in the minds of Nigerians that the government was ready to protect their data privacy.
“It will promote global competitiveness of our businesses because if you don’t have cross-border data protection law; a data protection authority a lot of companies see your country as not serious.
“The conference will promote our business interest in Nigeria and outside the country and bring the world to see what we are doing with our data protection and privacy,’’ he said.
He said the commission had adopted the Public-Private Partnership model in enforcing data protection in the country.
He said the approach was not only proving to be effective but also creating jobs in the ecosystem and deepening data privacy awareness.
