Nigeria’s Data Protection Market Value Reaches N5.5bn —Minister

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Prof. Isa Pantami has said that the market value of the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB) in Nigeria has reached N5.5 billion.

Pantami announced this during a press conference to mark the start of Global Data Privacy Week 2023 in Abuja.

The annual Data Privacy Day has the theme ‘Think Privacy First’.

Pantami said: “Data is critical to the country and it is a global best practice otherwise it will be difficult to bring so many interventions and benefits to the country.”

He said that data privacy is not only an enabling law, but also a constitutional right as long as the citizens are innocent and abide by the law.

He said the NDPB benefited so much from having the law and authority to enforce it on behalf of the country.

The minister said, “The NDPB has created many jobs whose value is currently N5.5 billion.

“Today it is a worldwide practice that you must have the law or you will find it difficult to bring so many interventions and benefits to your country.

“Even potential investors are now wondering whether or not there is data protection legislation in place in your country.

“If you don’t have data protection laws, they feel uncomfortable coming to your country to invest because data is critical these days.

“Usually we say data is the new oil, but sometimes I even argue that data is water, because water is a necessity for survival and data is a necessity for survival in the knowledge economy.”

According to Pantami, a knowledge economy cannot emerge without data. “Once the water is stored, it can be used any time; same with data,” he said.

All this, Pantami said, was why the ministry came up with the proposal to have a full-fledged data protection institution and also an important data protection law in Nigeria.

“The data protection law is in no way intended to penalize our citizens, but rather to raise awareness so that we will all be data compliant.

“That is why it is important. We are urged to comply, and through raising awareness, reaching out to other institutions, sanctioning and questioning others, you will find that the compliance rate is getting higher,” Pantami said.

NDPB National Commissioner, Dr Vincent Olatunji, said the purpose of the Privacy Week was to raise awareness and spread privacy practices and principles throughout society.

Olatunji said the committee, which emerged from the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), was designed to encourage everyone to take up their responsibilities to create a culture of privacy.

“It is a day set aside to raise awareness about fundamental rights and freedoms related to citizens’ privacy in the data processing ecosystem.

To date, we have sensitized more than 50 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). We now have a circular that everyone must comply with the provisions of the law,” he said.

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