"It’s Criminal Offence To Access Data In Nigeria Without Permission" - Pantami
Pantami revealed the legislation became necessary in order to ensure the safety, privacy and confidentiality of data in Nigeria
Joy Kalu 
The minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Pantami says it is a criminal offense to access data in Nigeria without permission.
This he said underscored the need to have principal legislation in place, to ensure the safety, privacy, and confidentiality of data in Nigeria.
And to address the situation, he said the ministry is working hard with critical stakeholders to bequeath the country’s principal legislation before the end of this year.
The minister made this known on Tuesday, October 4, 2022, during a National Validation Workshop on the draft National Data Protection Bill held in Abuja.
The bill according to him will be transmitted to the Federal Executive Council for deliberation and if approved by Federal Executive Council will be transmitted to the National Assembly by the President to enable them to Kickstart the process of legislation before the commencement of general elections next year.
Pantami stated: “There is a need to have principal legislation in place, to ensure safety, privacy, and confidentiality of data.
“The Bill will be transmitted to the Federal Executive Council for deliberation and if approved by FEC, will be transmitted to the National Assembly by the President to enable them to Kickstart the process of legislation before the end of December 2022.
“The reason for having the legislation is to ensure that there is no vacuum. To ensure confidentiality, privacy, and security of our citizen’s data, we commenced the process of having principal legislation in Nigeria Data Protection law.
“The ministry is working hard with critical stakeholders to bequeath a befitting principal legislation for Data Protection before the end of the year.”
He said, though, the country has other existing legislation the country requires principal legislation to guarantee the safety and privacy of individual and corporate organizations.
He explained that the workshop was necessary to collate stakeholders’ input for inclusive and rancor-free legislation.
“The Bill is very important and without legislation on it will not make much impact. It is a sector that has unlimited space to be utilized to grow the economy.
“Enacting the National Data Protection law is in the process, this process commenced in January 2019, when we came up with a Nigeria legislation.
He further said that a lot had been achieved in the area of creating awareness, and job creation.
“We realized the need to have a full-fledged law which is principal legislation which will go as an executive bill to accommodate all the areas that are not backed by full legislation.
“The process was initially coordinated by NIMC but President Muhammadu Buhari later approved a full-blown agency NDPB.
“The data being generated today is mind-boggling, and because of the huge data being generated, we must have legislation in place to ensure that there is confidentiality and privacy of that data so that the data will not be abused.
“The first industrial revolution was about data generation, citizens submit their data to government or private institutions, some countries commercialize data and that is why we are very proactive in Nigeria to ensure that there is no vacuum,
“We came up with the Nigeria Data Protection regulation and relying on our regulatory powers, immediately commenced enforcement because subsidiary legislation is considered a law up to the Supreme Court.
“The reason for having the legislation is to ensure that there is no vacuum. To ensure confidentiality, privacy, and security of our citizen’s data, we commenced the process of having principal legislation in Nigeria Data Protection law.
“In the 4th industrial revolution, data is key, the quantity of data generated in Nigeria in the last three years increased by 202 percent. The whole quantity of data generated globally within three years approximately was 5 exabytes. In 48 hours, the quantity of data generated globally is equated to the quantity of data that was generated within 5000 years.
“By 2025, because of the Internet of Things, it is going to be exponential growth of data.
Today the data being generated in Nigeria is in terabytes and there must be legislation in place to ensure that this data being generated is confidential, secured, and private.
