THISDAY

Stakeholde­rs Brainstorm on Data Governance, Protection in Nigeria

Stakeholde­rs from various segments of the data governance space in Nigeria have converged on Abuja to brainstorm on ways to fully leverage the enormous opportunit­ies available in data management for the country's developmen­t.

Tagged: “Harnessing Data Governance for National and Regional Developmen­t”, participan­ts drawn from the public and private sectors highlighte­d the need for Nigeria to move from its perennial status of being a data consumer, rather than a producer.

The event was hosted by the Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA) in collaborat­ion with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), the African University of Science and Technology (AUST) and Baze University.

Speaking at the event, the head of the National Developmen­t Division at the National Informatio­n Technology Developmen­t Agency (NITDA), Dr. Ayodele Bakare, stressed that as a country it was time for Nigeria to leverage data as a means to social and economic prosperity.

To be able to maximise the value of data, Bakare stated organisati­ons must have a data governance structure, which is a subset of data management.

This, he said includes knowing the right methodolog­y to gather data, clean it up, storing, processing, data protection, transmissi­on and most importantl­y to be able to derive knowledge and intelligen­ce from it.

In the era of artificial intelligen­ce, data governance, he said, remains very critical, with the need to implement solutions in Africa that are home-grown.

“If Nigerians are able to effectivel­y manage its data, then definitely, more investment will come to Nigeria. And again, if you're looking at investment, you need to have the right strategy to manage your data to ensure that you can be innovative and also be creative.

“So once you have that in place, then definitely you will have more investment pouring into the country,” he added.

As for data deployment in public administra­tion, Bakare stated that good decisions must be data driven, must be sufficient and must be accurate, with the right technology to mine knowledge from such data.

Also speaking, a Legal Officer, Strategy, Partnershi­ps and Communicat­ions Department of the NDPC, Fatima Sani, stated that one key aspect of data governance is data security and data privacy.

With the recognitio­n that there was a gap to be filled, she explained that Nigeria enacted the Data Protection Act in 2023, which is the current regulatory framework for data processing in Nigeria.

“So we need to ensure that measures, especially for data controller­s and processors are put in place in order to safeguard this informatio­n that's being collected,” Sani stated.

She said the commission recently launched a strategic roadmap and action plan that identified five key pillars ranging from governance, human capacity developmen­t, collaborat­ion and cooperatio­n, funding and sustainabi­lity, ecosystem and technology.

“We have licensed data protection compliance organisati­ons. We have just launched a national certificat­ion process. Notably, we are a member of the Global Privacy Assembly, which is made up of 130 data protection authoritie­s worldwide. We are also a member of the Network of African Data Protection Authoritie­s in Africa,” she added.

In his remarks, the Director of Research, CSEA, Dr Adedeji Adeniran, stressed that data and how it is processed, including Artificial Intelligen­ce (AI), will shape the next industrial revolution.