By Na’ankwat Dariem.
The Nigerian government says the country’s data strategy will determine its digital economy benefits.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami stated this in Abuja at the World Data Privacy day organised by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) with the theme”Charting Nigeria’s Data Strategy” where it submitted its performance report on the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation to the Minister.
Pantami said that Nigeria is yeilding results from their policies and regulatory guidelines adding that it is our data strategy that will determine the benefits we will get from the digital economy.
“The question then is, how do we lead Nigeria to experience the great benefits of a digital economy? To do this, we must chart a data strategy. The design must be inclusive to accommodate all strata of society,” he noted.
He went further to mention some of the benefits being recorded by the sector to include but not only monies remitted to the Federal Government and jobs created so far.
“Yes, we are getting results! If you look at the records from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) or the Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS), the results are quite impressive in the last two years.
“We remitted over N358 billion through the the proceeds of spectrum sale under the National Frequency Management Council, NFMC, within this period also, the sector got over N601 billion through the earnings of small mobile operators. This was done through the FIRS,” he explained.
Pantami noted that not that there were no laws protecting citizens data privacy but that there were no specific penalty for violators.
“At that time they could agree that there were no clear punishment that was clearly stated in our laws. However if you look at all our laws in Nigeria, particularly the institutions that are dealing with data you will discover that our laws covers data privacy, data safety and data protection. And that is why we developed the NDPR”.
According to Pantami, the NDPR has helped to create 7,680 jobs. “NDPR services created over 7,680 jobs and over 500,000 Nigerians have benefited from training on digital skills, adding that NDPR enabling instruments of the digital economy are the rules of engagement in chatting Nigeria’s data strategy.
The Director General NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, who applauded the Minister for laying a solid data regulation and protection in the country, said,
“We have seen the journey so far and the efforts of the Minister and I believe he is planning to do more so that we can consolidate what we have achieved so far, position it well to create and capture value from the digital economy which drives the growth of traditional economy.
The DG explained that without proper data privacy regulations, the big techs will see us as raw materials for their business.
“The big techs see us as a free great raw material for them to extract our personal experience to commodize it for advertisment and product and service making.
“So without this kind of awareness, we will end up being controlled by this big techs because once they know everything about us; they now know about us the way we think, know our perception and then extract that information and use it as a data, which they call Data experience and sell it as a product that will not be easily cut, timed, and influence how we vote. We have seen it in our elections also influence what we read, see and buy.”
According to Inuwa , the event is to promote compliance with Data Protection Regulations.
“The objective is to let the data collection processors follow a proper way of processing a personal data. We have ethics on what to do. Everything is not about money making or profit . As Human beings, we need a right to our personal privacy data,” he stressed.
As part of the event, NITDA organised a debate/quiz for some schools in Abuja, Astute Montessori School, Kuje, emerged the overall winners with a cash prize of N150,000 with three smart phones, Intelligent Quotient Academy, Garki 2, emerged first runners up with a cash prize of N100,000, while
Junior Secondary school, Wuse, emerged second runners up with a cash prize of N75,000.
