Stakeholders Brainstorm on Data Governance, Protection in Nigeria

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

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.

“We know, as a continent, Africa has missed out on several of these industrial revolutions. The first, the second, the third, now even the fourth. Now we are seeing the emergence of a new industrial potential.

“And if Africa will really benefit from this industrialisation, one very critical thing is we need to be part of that global value chain. We can’t just be consumers, we need to be part of the producers.

“And for you to be a part of the producers group, you actually need to be creating something. And that really sets out an enabling environment for data and data innovations. That’s why data governance is critical,” he explained.