The National Information Technology Development Agency(NITDA) has giving licence to 11 Data protection Compliance Organization(DPCO) with 16 pending.
This was disclosed on Thursday at a one day Media executives Master Class on Nigeria Data Protection Regulation 2019 which was organized by the agency in Abuja, Nigeria.
Acording to the NITDA Implementation framework for the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation(NDPR), a DPCO may have one or more of the following
- Professional service consultancy firm
- IT service provider
- Audit firm
- Law firm
And they must have data protection certification or experience to any of the following
- Data science
- Data protection and privacy
- Information Privacy
- Information Audit
- Data Management
- Information security
- Data protection legal services
- Information Technology due diligence
- EU GDPR implementation and compliance
- Cybersecurity/cybersecurity law
- Data Analytics
- Data Governance
Dr Vicent Olatunji -Director of e-Government Regulations ,NITDA who was representing the Director General of the agency- Kashifu Inuwa noted that six out of the eleven licensed DPCO had started recruiting staff for the commencement of work in line with the government policy of capacity building and job creation.
The launch of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation(NDPR) is envisaged to provide 300,000 new jobs in the information and communications Technology(ICT) and with the newly licensed DPCOs, we can say the work has began.
The data protection regulation in Nigeria would attract more foreign investment in the country says Dr Vicent Olatunji.
He also added that NITDA is taking proactive steps in it’s regulatory activities because in the next 10 years, data business and revenues will surpass oil business and revenues as no industry will operate without the use of data.
This is coming after NITDA entered into a strategic partnership with the European Data Protection Office (EDPO) to enable Nigerian businesses comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Read more: https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/nitda-seals-deal-with-eu-on-data-protection-compliance.html
This Data Protection Compliance Organizations(DPCOs) will be responsible for training,auditing, consulting and rendering services and products for the purpose of compliance with this NITDA Regulation or any foreign Data Protection law or regulation having effect in Nigeria.