The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) is ready to take legal action, including jailing any individual or organisation that violates the nation’s data protection laws, Dr Vincent Olatunji, National Commissioner and CEO of the Federal agency has warned.
Nigeria’s data protection chief made it clear that CEOs of such organisations will face severe consequences and may be imprisoned for a period ranging from six months to three years for being responsible for such data breaches.
“Between six months to three years. Now, we were able to obtain the circular from the office of the SGF on November 7, 2022, and on November 16, we obtained another set of guidelines from the Office of The Head of Service mandating all MDAs (ministries, departments and agencies) to comply. Within three months of getting the circular and the guideline, compliance that was just four per cent in the public sector rose to nine per cent. It shows that people are beginning to embrace what we are doing,” Olatunji said during an interview with the media.
“Yes. It is one thing to have a regulation or a law; it is a completely different thing for you to implement it. With the law that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed, a lot has happened in terms of the reputation of this country in the international community as a country that is ready for digital business. When you have your privacy law and an independent data protection authority, you are trying to create trust and confidence. So, when you have this, the next thing is how do you implement the law?”
Dr Vincent Olatunji, National Commissioner and CEO, Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC).
According to him, “a lot of public sector organisations, because of international collaborations and partnerships, a lot of organisations that they are dealing with outside Nigeria tell them if you do not have that provision of data protection or privacy, they are not ready to do business with you. So, a lot of them are beginning to see value in what we are doing. So it (compliance) is increasing now, it’s really getting better.”
Asked about the experience of individuals who are having problems with telecoms companies giving out their personal information, Olatunji said that people often receive unsolicited messages for campaigns and events and wonder how these companies obtained their phone numbers also his efforts to address this issue.
“It is part of what we are trying to discourage now. Recently, NCC has been issuing notices to the telcos not to allow such to happen on their networks and they will face strict penalties if any telco is reported that they are using their platform to send unsolicited messages. So, NCC is already taking care of that and I’m sure it has already reduced,” the data protection chief said.
Olatunji also explained the five pillars of the data protection strategic plan for 2023-2027. “Yes. It is one thing to have a regulation or a law; it is a completely different thing for you to implement it. With the law that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed, a lot has happened in terms of the reputation of this country in the international community as a country that is ready for digital business. When you have your privacy law and an independent data protection authority, you are trying to create trust and confidence. So, when you have this, the next thing is how do you implement the law?
According to Olatunji, “that was why we came about developing the blueprint, the strategic broad plan which is made up of five major pillars. Now, apart from the pillars, we have 67 specific initiatives that will drive these five pillars.”
He also explained that “the five pillars, are governance, awareness and human capital development, the ecosystem and technology, funding and sustainability, cooperation and collaboration.”
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