The National Commissioner/CEO of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Dr Vincent Olatunji, gave key stakeholder remarks on behalf of the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr ’Bosun Tijani, at the launch of the Ericsson Connect NextGen Hackathon and Ericsson Educate at the State House, Abuja.

At the event, where the keynote address was delivered by the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, Senator Kashim Shettima (GCON), ably represented by the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadeija, Dr Olatunji reiterated that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR)’s Renewed Hope Agenda is being driven by the digital economy and that the Minister also developed a blueprint in line with the President’s vision.

Dr Olatunji noted that innovation thrives in an environment of trust and confidence, urging innovators to adopt privacy-by-design and privacy-by-default principles as they strike a balance between innovation and data protection. He emphasised NDPC’s willingness to support the hackathon initiative in the area of Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) and appointment of a Data Protection Officers (DPOs) to guide them through compliance, and would be coordinated in collaboration with the Office of the Vice President.

Other dignitaries who delivered remarks at the event were the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Kingsley Tochukwu Udeh (SAN); the Ambassador of Sweden to Nigeria, Ambassador Anna Westerholm; the Head of Cooperation of the European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr Massimo De Luca; and the Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), among others.