By Abdulrahman Aliagan, Abuja
Nigerians have been warned to protect their data as their data is nothing but their world, the Director General of Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Mr Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi gave the warning, Tuesday at the interactive session with Journalists during the World Privacy Day and Public Awareness Workshop, 2020, themed: Data Privacy and Digital Economy organized by his led agency at NAF Centre, Abuja.
The DG NITDA affirmed the fact that we are in digital world and our data should be protected, he said, “We generate a lot of data, data captures our day-to-day activities as we put a lot of our data on internet, smartphones and other electronic devices” He warned that, “We need to be careful on how we play on our data. “He who controls our data controls our lives; as a matter of fact we need to be careful about how we play with our data.” He warned.
He stated further, “It is however instructive to note that, in a digital economy, everything is online, if anybody has access to our credit card details, such person can make transfer from our account. That is more reason why we are partnering with media organisations, to spread the message about data privacy and data protection, it is my belief that with you here the message will get to everybody. Abdullahi said.
Harping on the nation’s population, he attested to the fact that Nigeria has a population of about 200million, he pointed out that about 122million are on internet, while 32.4million are on social media. “You can take this message out to sensitise the general public on how sensitive our personal information are and possible way to protect it. More importantly, how we can use data to advance our economy.”
He talked on the Agency’s projection in the next three years, particularly, in the area of job creation in digital economy. The DG assures Nigerians that the agency is projecting to generate about 300, 000 jobs. He pointed out: “Data is an industry on its own, looking at the nation’s population, it is noted that we have about 30million data processors and data collectors in Nigeria that would comply with this regulation.
“We are creating a new industry, where we have new set of professionals coming on board to help this organization to comply; they also need to employ people to ensure continuity.
“This is not a one-off thing, no matter what you do, you just have to make sure you comply with this regulations.”
On NITDA capacity in tracking information that violates data privacy. Mr Kashifu makes a distinction between data protection and surveillance, he said, data economy is about data privacy, peoples’ personal information and no other person impersonating on others. He clarifies position of other security agencies, he said, the national security overrides personal privacy nothing like clash of interest. He assures.
Like any other area of success, there bound to be challenges, according to the NITDA boss, he said one of the greatest challenges the agency is faced with is that of awareness. “My hope is raised as a result of your presence here; I know it will be easier for us, because people don’t know about privacy while some do not even know what personal data is. If the problem of awareness is out of it, definitely, the agency would achieve the essence in which it was established. I can assure you.”
He added: “Personal data is information that can uniquely identifies person or persons, it could be an email address, mobile number, house address and many other things someone can take and it will uniquely identify person. We need to go on awareness campaign so that people can understand. He maintained that for anybody to thrive in digital economy, he said there must be a trust.
Abdullahi confirmed that NITDA is having a robust synergy, collaboration and understanding with security agencies in using technology to curtailing the menace of fraudster and terrorism in the country.
While commenting on data unification, he said, “Mechanism is being put in place to unify all government agencies and ensures that unified database is achieved. He added that government has given a directive to the Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy to digitize all government services.
He therefore clears doubts that digitization of a nation is a journey, and not something that can happen within a snap of a hand. “You need to prepare to get there; NITDA has come up with three instrument to achieve that, one, enforcement of ICT clearance power, NITDA has being the IT clearance House for all government projects. The idea of this is to know what different MDAs are doing and to make sure that there is integration between them as well as making sure that there is no duplication.
“Secondly, we have government interoperability framework, this will help the country for integration, to do this integration one has to find a way to exchange data from one application to another, this is something that needs a plan, it needs time to happen, we equally need to look at the data format, architecture, base before we can the come up with a harmonized database system.
“The last one is, government enterprise architecture, this gives clue of operational system of government, processes of information that to come up with application and technology architecture that would automate the system.
“All these are what NITDA is doing to develop architecture for the entire government and individual MDA is going to plug into that architecture in line with their responsibility. At the end of the day we all know where we are going and all IT investment is going to be in line with Federal government architecture. We have been enforcing this through our IT clearance as well. He maintained.