NITDA Introduces A Complaint Book Over Data Protection

Last week in Abuja, the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) launched a visitor complaint book.

According to reports, the book was accorded to the  Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR).

NDPR was initiated to guide businesses and organisations to comply with when collecting people’s information.

At the launch is the Director-General of theNITDA, Kashifu Inuwa.

He highlighted the need for the book and how the initiate came to be.

According to him, the book was to provide solutions to the data protection problems and the expensive digital visitors’ management.

“NITDA is statutorily mandated by the NITDA Act of 2007 to inter alia; develop regulations for electronic governance and monitor the use of electronic data interchange and other forms of electronic communication transactions as an alternative to paper-based methods in government, commerce, education, the private and public sectors, labour and other fields, where the use of electronic communication may improve the exchange of data and information.”, Inuwa says.

He also mentions that many organisations have migrated to online management.

And the information systems they use should be safeguarded and protected.

Also, he adds that “Data protection applies to all transactions intended for the processing of Personal Data, notwithstanding how the data processing is being conducted or intended to be conducted in respect of natural persons in Nigeria,”.

Inuwa says that the book was initiated after the privacy week organised by NITDA in 2021.

And this was after they discovered an issue with citizens’ data protection after filling visitors’ books.

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Introduction of NDPR

Back in 2019, when NDPR was introduced, businesses were to comply with the requirement given for data protection.

However, some organisations were caught going against the regulation, and others were scrambling to comply.

Although there were reasons behind it, one of the reasons highlighted during the launch was financial constraints.

Another was that some businesses and organisations were still confused about the rules in the data regulation.

Also, in a research of 30 participants, 100 per cent of paper visitors books were not confidential, and there was no privacy of the identities.

And 98 per cent confirmed that they did not dispose of the visitors’ books securely or privately.

However, it was noted that many of the organisations didn’t observe that the NDPR wasn’t only limited to online data collection.

But it applies to all levels of data collection.

“The NDPR is technology-agnostic.

It applies to all acts of personal data collection and processing, no matter how and where it takes place, visitor data, employee personal data, etc.,”

Interesting, the book launch is the first of a Nigerian agency in terms of privacy regulation in Nigeria.

Also, the launch is coming after an issue NITDA had some days past.

Someone reported having discovered a leak in the database of the server.

However, it was later discovered that it wasn’t a leak from the NITDA server that it was a slip of a NIN from a Nigeria phone brand.

Implication for users

As the world keeps progressing, the issue of data protection and privacy is becoming popular.

And security agencies in the country are looking for ways to help deal with the issue.

NITDA has been in charge of the security of identity information of Nigerians.

And this is one of its way of looking out for the security of the people.