The National Commissioner/CEO, Nigeria Data Protection Commission, NDPC, Vincent Olatunji, has lamented the oil and gas sector’s low level of compliance on the digital identity, data privacy and protection.
Mr Olatunji who made the lamentation during a courtesy visit to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpbori, in Abuja.
According to Mr Olatunji, over 104 million Nigerians use the internet on a daily basis, warning that this portrays danges if there were no regulations in safeguarding data of Nigerians.
He said: “Looking at the oil and gas Sector, our economy is very dependent on the oil and gas industry and looking at the number of personal data been collected, processed and shared on a regular basis, there’s a compliance with the data privacy laws and measures put in place to ensure a secured trust and safety.
“The starting point is for people to really understand what we are doing so in preparing the sector for this, we are trying to bring up a workshop to discuss the sector and roles that data privacy and protection could play in probing businesses in this sector and our global competitiveness in the oil and gas sector.
“What our law says is that all Data Controllers and Processors in Nigeria must have their Data Protection officers who would create awareness, train members and oversee the processing of personal data in the organization and we have identified about 5,000 data protection controllers and processors in Nigeria, whereas, those of us who are certified are not up to 10,000.
“So, we have a gap of 490,000 people we need in the sector with jobs waiting, although we have the people but we don’t have the skills so we need to upskill.”
Reacting, the minister expressed joy with the level at which Nigeria was keeping with the global trend in upscaling the organization from being a bureau to now a full-pledged commission.
He said: “Nigeria is seen as a country of fraudsters, a country where whatever you do may not be protected as it were, in terms of sacred data.
“If through your commission, people are educated on how to safeguard their data, I think it will go a long way in sustaining the confidence of the investing world in Nigeria.
“You may not be far from the truth when you say that compliance in the oil industry is pretty low and I believe it is as a result of the fact that a lot of people are not aware of what they ought to do in this order. So, the ministry will be very willing to participate in that workshop.
“We will try and bring in the agency that are under us, who are the real breakers of the industry like the NNPC, NPRC, NNPPRA and then BTI, all the organizations under us so that they could also have the opportunity to participate in this workshop,” the minister assured.
NAN
