NITDA Privacy Day: Nigeria achieved 50% of awareness in data privacy – Isa Pantami

 By Odimmegwa Johnpeter/Abuja

As Nigeria celebrates International Privacy Day, the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, has said that Nigeria has achieved 50% of awareness in data privacy and may achieve up to 70% next year.

This is as the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Mr. Kashifu Abdullahi, has said that the strategy of the organisation is to create a workable, credible implementation process that would assist the National Assembly in its desire to pass a data protection bill. Both chief executives spoke yesterday in Abuja during the International Privacy Day with the theme “Data Privacy in a Digital Economy.”

The minister stated that every citizen has the right to have protected data, while it is the duty of the government to ensure that data is well protected in the country.

On his part, the DG of NITDA said that data powers the digital economy while data privacy is a critical component of the digital economy.

According to him, in one year, NITDA has achieved issuance of data protection compliance organisation licenses that have created over 1,000 jobs in a sector currently valued at about N 2 billion and have treated over 1,200 inquries for clarification.