The Data Protection Bill was enacted into law on Monday by President Bola Tinubu.

This information was provided in a statement that Babatunde Bamigboye, the director of the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau’s legal enforcement and regulations division, signed.

Dr. Vincent Olatunji, the National Commissioner of the NDPB, voiced hope for Nigeria’s digital economy in the wake of the new regulatory framework.

He applauded the president for renewing the hope of over 200 million Nigerians in the advancement of privacy rights and other fundamental freedoms both in cyberspace and in analogue transactions,

The statement read in part, “Nigeria has taken a giant leap forward in the global data race with the assent to Nigeria Data Protection Act by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The Act was signed on the 12th of June 2023.

“The NDPB, pursuant to the express provisions of the new act, has transmuted into a full-fledged commission and it is mandated to among others:

(a) regulate the deployment of technological and organisational measures to enhance personal data protection;

(b) foster the development of personal data protection technologies, in accordance with recognised international best practices and applicable international law;
conduct investigations into any violation of a requirement under the Act;

(c) impose penalties in respect of any violation of the provisions of the Act or subsidiary legislation made thereof;

(d) where necessary, accredit, license, and register suitable persons to provide data protection compliance services;

(e) issue regulations, rules, directives and guidance under the Act; and

(f) register data controllers and data processors of major importance.”

The bureau further disclosed that the act is one of the strategic ways the president is fulfilling his campaign promise of creating 1 million jobs in the digital economy sector.

About 500,000 jobs are expected to be created through the training of data protection officers and licensing of data protection compliance organisations to offer services to data controllers and processors.