NDPB Calls for Stronger Privacy Standards to Drive Digital ID Ecosystem

National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has been called upon by Nigeria’s new data privacy authority, Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB) to set high standards for data protection and privacy as one of the ways of strengthening the country’s digital ID ecosystem.

Dr. Vincent Olatunji, national commissioner of Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB), made this call during a working visit to the NIMC headquarters.

The NDPB was officially launched on April 11.

Olatunji emphasized on the importance of data protection and privacy to the growth and development of Nigeria’s digital economy, adding that there cannot be a proper digital identity landscape without sufficient safeguards for data protection and privacy.

“The commission (NIMC) which is the highest data controller in the country should be a model for other data controllers since data is the foundation of everything in the country’s digital economy. There is nothing you would want to do in the digital economy without proper identity and you can’t achieve that without adequate privacy and protection of data,” commissioner of Nigeria Data Protection Bureau said.

Recall, Olatunji, in a separate visit to the premises of the Nigeria Digital Identity for Development project (ID4D), raised similar concerns, expressing the wish to see the putting in place of a harmonized National Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) framework.

According to the NDPB National Commissioner, the ID4D project has been doing a great job in coordinating Nigeria’s digital economy drive. Nigeria’s digital ID scheme, recall, is partly funded through the ID4D facility of the World Bank, as well as other financing from the European Investment Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD).

Olatunji pointed out that the NDPB is already engaging with relevant stakeholders on the drafting of the data protection regulation, which he believes, if well worked on, will make the legal instrument robust and more accepted.

“After the drafting of the bill, we will need to engage stakeholders and make them see it as their own because they are making important contributions to whatever we are doing. We are already mobilizing them to get them ready for the bill that is coming,” Olatunji said.

Efforts have been on to get a Data Protection Regulation in place in Nigeria since 2018, but a move by the federal government last year to abandon an old draft of the text triggered anger in some quarters.