Danbatta Bags NDPB Pillar Of Support Award

The executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Prof. Garba Umar Danbatta, has been conferred with the award of Pillar of Support by the Nigerian Data Protection Bureau (NDPB) for his ceaseless contributions to the growth and development of the Bureau.

The NCC boss bagged the award during the unveiling of the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) implementation Report 2020-2023 released at the first anniversary of the NDPB held in Abuja recently. The NCC was also conferred with the award of Institutional Pillar  of Support Award.

Prof. Danbatta, who was represented at the occasion, expressed his delight at the award and pledged more commitments to assist the Bureau in its quest to achieve its core mandate of protecting Nigeria’s data and ensuring data privacy.

Other institutions of the federal government under the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy that bagged the pillar of support awards included; the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) among others.

In his remarks at the event, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, assured that the recent approval of the Data Protection Bill by the Federal Executive Council was a significant milestone in the journey to attain 100 percent compliance with data protection and data privacy.

The NDPB report said it has generated a total of N5.5 billion from data protection sector cumulative revenue between 2020 to 2022, adding that it has created a total of 9.5 million jobs from the sector in the same three years’ period.

The report also said the total NDPR compliance revenue between 2020 to 2022 was N94.4million.

In his keynote address, Prof. Isa Ali Pantami said the aim of establishing the bureau was not only to sanction, interrogate or investigate agencies that fail to comply with extant law on data protection but to ensure the compliance.

He admonished government institutions and private sector to keep confidentiality and privacy of citizens’ data at their disposal and also become ambassadors of Nigeria Data Protection Bill, policy and regulation.

He said, “Virtual engagement has been institutionalised and formalised by the Federal government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari.  He considers himself as the founder of the Nigerian Data Protection Bill.

“Historically, the journey commenced in December 2019, when he signed the subsidiary legislation after which the implementation commenced. The president approved the establishment of the Bureau with the appointment of Mr Vincent Olatunji as the pioneer CEO. We came up with the introduction of the Bureau to ensure data privacy and data protection for our citizens and legal residents.

‘’In addition, the Federal Executive Council last week approved the Bill and directed that the Bill be transmitted to the National Assembly by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice’’.

Earlier in his welcome address, the National Commissioner/CEO of (NDPB) Dr. Vincent Olatunji said, ‘‘the establishment of the NDPB was in line with global best practice that we should give life to the issue of protecting personal data. We believe that we should have a roadmap in order to have a direction.

“We have made a significant progress on the bill, the Bureau has trained major organizations in the public sector, and have trained over 100 data protection officers from different MDAs on data privacy and protection and the need to comply with the provisions of the law, especially the circular issued by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the guidelines issued by the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation.

“The task at hand is a collective responsibility and we need to work together to adequately position our country to the global digital economy.”

The highlight of the event was the presentation of pillar of support awards to the Minister and to some institutions under the Ministry such as the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) among others.

In his goodwill message, the director general of Voice of Nigeria (VON) Chief Osita Okechukwu said the establishment of NDPB and its one year outstanding operation was an indication that businesses in Nigeria will prosper.

“What is needed is trust. The world has left the analogue system and is going digital and will never come back”.