Minister Receives Draft National Data Protection Bill
Nigeria’s Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami has received the draft National Data Protection Bill for onward transmission to the Federal Executive Council, FEC, for its approval. The draft copy of the Bill was officially presented to the Minister by the National Commissioner of the National Data Protection Bureau, NDPB, Dr. Vincent Olatunji in Abuja, Nigeria. The bill, which was drafted following a series of stakeholder engagements in a National policy Dialogue, a workshop for National Assembly members and another for the private sector, marked the end of the 3-month process of seeking stakeholder input. According to a statement by the External Communication Manager of the National Digital Identification for Development (NDID4D) project, Mouktar Adamu, the draft bill was validated by stakeholders and uploaded on the NDPB website for public scrutiny, contributions and comments within a seven day-period. Receiving copies of the draft bill, the Minister directed that “it should be handed over to his team for review and a covering memo.” Pantami assured the National Commissioner and the Coordinator of the NDID4D that due diligence would be done on the bill to ensure its speedy passage by the National Assembly and eventual assent by President Muhammadu Buhari. He said: “With the recent assent to the recent start-up bill by President Muhammadu Buhari, we are confident of the speedy passage of this bill by the National Assembly whom we have enjoyed a robust working relationship, and an assent by President Muhammadu Buhari.’’ At the workshop for the National Assembly members, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on ICT, Yakubu Oseni had pledged that the committee would do the needful by passing the bill, once it was presented before the legislature. When promulgated, the law would seek to safeguard the fundamental rights and freedoms of data subjects as guaranteed under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. This would be in addition to contributing to the legal foundations of the digital economy of Nigeria and its participation in the regional and global economies through the beneficial, trusted use of personal data.