The Data Protection Bill was enacted into law on Monday by President Bola Tinubu. This information was provided in a statement that Babatunde Bamigboye, the director of the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau’s legal enforcement and regulations division, signed.
Dr. Vincent Olatunji, the National Commissioner of the NDPB, voiced hope for Nigeria’s digital economy in the wake of the new regulatory framework.
He praised the president for giving the nation’s more than 200 million citizens fresh hope for the growth of their right to privacy and other fundamental freedoms in both digital and analog commerce.
Part of the statement said, “With President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s approval of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, Nigeria has taken a huge step ahead in the competition for global data. The Act was ratified on June 12, 2023.
“The NDPB has transformed into a full-fledged commission in accordance with the specific terms of the new statute, and it is required to, among other things:
conduct investigations into any violation of an Act requirement; (a) regulate the deployment of technological and organizational measures to enhance personal data protection; (b) foster the development of personal data protection technologies in accordance with acknowledged international best practices and applicable international law;
(c) impose penalties for any infringement of the Act’s or its subsidiary legislation’s provisions;
(d) when necessary, accredit, license, and register qualified individuals to offer services relating to data protection compliance;
e) publish guidelines, instructions, rules, and regulations in accordance with the Act; and
(f) register significant data controllers and processors.
The agency also revealed that the action is one of the calculated ways the president is making good on his promise to generate 1 million jobs in the field of the digital economy.
The licensing of data protection compliance organizations to provide services to data controllers and processors and the training of data protection officers are estimated to generate over 500,000 employment.