By Clifford Agugoesi, Editor-in-Chief

The National Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission(NDPC), Dr. Vincent Olatunji has described the Data Economy, to which the Data Protection and Privacy sector is a subset, as a sector that has created immense wealth and enormous opportunities for people.

Dr. Olatunji said this Tuesday while addressing ICT journalists under the aegis of the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters’ Association(NITRA) in a capacity building workshop at the instance of the NDPC at Bon Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, south west, Nigeria.

While acknowledging the criticality of the press in the evolution and redefinition story of his Commission via timely and accurate reportage, Dr. Olatunji told the participants that they should count themselves lucky as privileged ecosystem players to be taking part in the workshop that would open up to them the humongous wealth and immense opportunities that were inherent in the data economy and subsets under it.  “Coverage of the sector by you is welcome and should be sustained but you should ask yourselves the question: what else is in this for us beyond reporting?”

He continued: “I would like to commend you for finding time to be a part of this training and to congratulate you that you are with us at this stage of laying the foundation for the growth and development of this ecosystem. We are here today to introduce you to the possibilities that this ecosystem commands.   There are so many opportunities available in this ecosystem. The potentials are huge.  The Data Protection and Privacy Ecosystem  globally is still emerging. Yes, some countries are already ahead of us…In Nigeria, we are talking about the data of over 200million people and in the country we have over 500,000 data processors, data controllers, leaving a huge gap waiting to be filled. Those of us that are certified in data privacy in Nigeria are not more than 10,000! Do we have the skills, do we have the capabilities? The answer is No!

“We don’t have enough people in this sector to serve as data processing experts. Don’t just be content as being a journalist. How about having a second career or another option in terms of career?  You are already in the sector. Now, there  is another one that is opening. So, we encourage that.  But do you have the skills? No!  This is why the issue of training and retooling is critical.  That is for DCPOs.  How about DPOs?  Who says you can’t be a DPO to work in one, two three or more organisations?  What we are doing is introducing you to the subject matter itself.  And who says you cannot go for further training, get certified and practicing?  It does not have anything to do with gender, it does not have anything to do with your medium. It does not have anything to do with your state of origin.  It does not have anything to do with what you studied in the university.  If you cannot reskill, if you cannot retool, you are bound to lose jobs.  Even in your own sector now, those who cannot use computers and digital technologies are gradually phasing out.  Now, because of  a lot of activities that would stimulate growth and development, new jobs are coming up; new opportunities are coming up This is one of them, which is still very rare in Nigeria.”

Elsewhere at the inauguration of the Technical Working Committee (TWC) on the  implementation of the National Data Strategy (NDS), the Permanent Secretary(PermSec) of the Federal Ministry of Communications & Digital Economy(FMoCDE), Dr. William Alo, who formally inaugurated the Committee, noted that the National Data Strategy was developed by the National Data Technical Working Group, comprising experts from various sectors of the economy, to address the critical role of data utilisation in Nigeria as well as harness the power of data to drive innovation, economic growth, and social development throughout the country.

In his intervention, the Director-General(DG) of the National Information Technology Development Agency(NITDA) Mallam Kashifu Inuwa while presenting a keynote address said the strategy, which was launched this year, aimed to harness the power of data to stimulate economic growth, innovation, and inclusivity in the country.

Mallam  Inuwa while emphasising the strategic importance of data in driving the digital economy, made reference to some figures from the World Economic Forum and Statistics, where he highlighted the substantial value of the data driven economy as currently estimated to be over US$3 trillion and projected to reach US$5 trillion in the future.

“The digital economy is worth more than US$16 trillion, and digitally transformed enterprises contributed US$13.5 trillion to the global GDP in 2018. This year, it is projected to contribute a staggering US$53.5 trillion, accounting for over 50 per cent of the global GDP,” Inuwa said.

He maintained that the National Data Strategy revolved around seven key pillars that were crucial to Nigeria’s successful transition to a digital economy, which he enumerated to include Data Literacy and Skills, Data Security and Privacy, Data Sovereignty, Data Infrastructure, Data Harmonisation, Data Usability, Inclusivity and Accessibility.