99% of Citizens Data Insured, Protected Says FG

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Obiajulu Joel Nwolu

Obiajulu Joel Nwolu is an established writer at africannewstoday.com. He is passionate about African affairs. He loves writing about interesting facts relating to the African continent and enjoys sharing his knowledge with others.

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The Federal Government has assured Nigerians that at least 99 per cent of citizens data was protected and insured, urging Nigerians not to worry about the privacy of their data.

The assurance was given by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, during the virtual National Privacy Week conference organised by the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, as part of programmes to mark the World Privacy Day.

Suspected hackers interrupted the data privacy forum, as disruptive voices were heard for some minutes during the event, Punch reports.

The disruptions caused the moderator to keep apologising for the hitches, while some participants expressed surprise at the development, which was, however, addressed by the organisers.

Addressing the issue of data protection in Nigeria, Pantami assured Nigerians that citizens data with the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, as well as those with firms regulated by the Nigeria Communications Commission were well secured.

He said, “Citizens data under our control, whether it is with the NIMC with regards to digital registration or under telecommunications companies, as regards the information of citizens under the custody of NCC, we’ve not witnessed any major challenge with regards to their data privacy or protection.

“I can say that at least 99 per cent of our privacy is insured, if not 100 per cent. And this is commendable. If you look at the percentage, we have been doing better than many developed nations today with regards to data protection or privacy.”

He added, “I want to assure our citizens that with this government in place our data are protected. And I want to also give the same assurance to our international partners and citizens residing in Nigeria that they should have peace of mind that their data is protected.”

In his submission, the Director-General, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, explained that data protection, contrary to popular belief, was not the same thing as privacy.

Inuwa said privacy was a broad concept referring to the condition which enables basic foundation of human dignity, but data protection was more specific.

He said,“It is concerned with the way a third party handles the information they hold about us, how it is collected, processed, shared, stored and used. In other words, privacy is the big picture and data protection is one corner of it.”