By Angela Nkwocha
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, has said that making the economy data-driven holds great potential for the country’s economic prosperity and enhancement of security architecture.
Pantami while speaking in Minna at the 29th Convocation Lecture of the Federal University of Technology, Minna themed, “Datafication of society: Economic and security issues in producing and using of private data in Nigeria”, noted that Nigeria’s wealth was mainly measured by the minerals and natural resources but the country is now moving into an era where our wealth will be measured by our digital resources and innovations of Nigerians.
He averred that the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy was committed to safeguarding the rights of citizens to data privacy through the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation such that no data shall be obtained except the specific purpose of the collection is made known to the data subject with mandates that the data collectors obtain consent of the data subject before using the data.
“In Nigeria, we are developing and implementing policies, standards, guidelines and frameworks that will enable us enjoy the prospects of datafication while also protecting ourselves against perils, the Mobile Data Analytics, Open Government Partnership and the Nigeria Data Protection Regulations, are some of the instruments that we are using”, he said.
He further posited that looking at the potential that we have in the country, Nigeria can easily be the best in Africa on data management and efficiency without challenges considering the huge potentials and digital skills inherent in the Nigerian Youth.
Also speaking at the event, the Executive Vice Chairman, of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Prof Umar Dambatta stated that prices of data has been reviewed downward, however, the Commission is still working on how the rates will be more available and affordable for Nigerians.
