The Journey Towards The Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 By Isa Ali Pantami The Nigeria Data Protection Act of 2023, which President Bola A...
The Journey Towards The Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023
By Isa Ali Pantami The Nigeria Data Protection Act of 2023, which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR signed into law on June 12, 2023,...
The Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, which was signed into law on June 12, 2023, by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, puts Nigeria in a good situation to take its rightful place among nations in the very important area of data protection and privacy. In this piece, I'll talk about the Data Protection Bill's timeline and list the events that led up to it being signed into law.
On January 25, 2019, I signed the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) as the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). This was the first important event. This was a piece of secondary law that got its power from the NITDA Act of 2007, specifically Section 6.
Before the NDPR 2019 was signed, Nigeria didn't have a policy document that helped protect data privacy and privacy. In Section 37 of the Constitution of 1999, as amended, there was a small mention of data security. It says, "The privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondences, telephone conversations, and telegraphic communications are hereby guaranteed and protected." It was also briefly mentioned in the laws of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), and a few others, but none of these laws had data protection as their main goal.
When I became CEO of NITDA in October 2016, I quickly understood that there was a big hole in the area of data protection. This, along with my strong interest in datafication and my belief that it would help Nigeria participate more effectively in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), led me to decide to put a lot of emphasis on Information Technology Law at NITDA and work with Nigeria's top universities to set up a course on Information Technology Law. This method helped us build the skills we needed to make our own version of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union. Eventually, a number of African countries joined forces with us to study and change the NDPR.
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Just two years after the NDPR was put into place, a new part of the economy was formed, and 7,680 Nigerians were given jobs. Nigeria was named Vice Chair of the Data Protection Laws Harmonisation Working Group at the African Union (AU). In the past two years, it was the only country in Africa to produce a report on data protection.
I sent a memo to the former President, His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR, on January 13, 2022, saying that there was "an urgent need to set up an institution as a government that will focus on data protection and privacy for the country." This was to build on the progress made through the NDPR 2019. For Nigeria's data security law to be accepted internationally, it needs to have an independent Authority. This standard is set by the Adequacy referential of the European Union's Article 29 Working Party, Convention 108 on the Automatic Processing of Personal Information, the EU-GDPR, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The organization would be a branch of NITDA, which at the time was making and carrying out the NDPR 2019. I also suggested that Dr. Vincent Olatunji, who was at the time Director of the eGovernment Development and Regulations Department and Chairman of the NDPR Implementation Committee at NITDA, be the first National Commissioner/CEO of the new organization. The planned organization was to be called the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB). The prayers in that letter were okay,
President Buhari chose Dr. Olatunji to be the first CEO of the NDPB for a five-year term.
On February 4, 2022, the NDPB began doing its job. Part of its job was to get everyone involved in writing a National Data Protection Bill, which will eventually turn the National Data Protection Bureau (NDPB) into the National Data Protection Commission (NDPC). Section 7 of the Nigeria Data Protection Act of 2023 makes the Commission independent, and Section 64 says that the Commission will replace the NDPB. So, because of Section 64, NDPB becomes NDPC on its own.
As part of making sure that Nigeria has a main law to protect data and privacy, a draught data protection bill was made with the help of both public and private institutions and people. On January 25, 2023, I talked about the draught bill at a meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC). The draught bill was passed after a lot of discussion and a few changes. Three Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), who were also members of the FEC, made changes to the draught bill that made it much better and changed the Bureau into a Commission.
After the Council approved the draught bill, I was told to talk to the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Honourable Minister of Justice about sending it to the National Assembly as an Executive Bill so that it could be passed by both houses. After I sent the bill to the National Assembly, I also met with members of the government a few times to talk about the bill and clear things up where needed.
After the letter from the President about the Executive Bill was read in both the Senate and the House of Representatives on April 4, 2023, each body looked at the draught bill on its own. After a lot of discussion, the Bill was passed by the Senate on May 3, 2023, and by the House on May 23, 2023. The bill was signed by President Tinubu on June 12, 2023.
The fact that it only took 70 days from when the Executive Bill was sent to the National Assembly to when Mr. President signed it into law shows that the Bill was given the importance it deserves in our country's journey toward a digital economy. The signing of the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 and the Nigeria Startup Act 2022, both of which I had the honor of helping to make, are very important and have laid a very good foundation for the growth of a strong digital economy and a sustainable knowledge-based economy.
I want to thank President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR and former President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR for their important help in getting the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 signed. I'm sure that these laws will speed up the digitalization of the different parts of the Nigerian economy, and that everyone who helped with the process will be remembered well by history.
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