The federal government says it plans to design an indigenous solution for implementing the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA).

Vincent Olatunji, the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) national commissioner, disclosed this in Abuja during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on the forthcoming 2024 Data Privacy Week.

Mr Olatunji recalled that President Bola Tinubu, in June 2023, signed the Nigeria Data Protection Bill into law, thereby providing a legal framework for the protection of personal information and the practice of data protection in Nigeria.

In implementing the legal framework, the NDPC commissioner said the government was considering using indigenous solutions.

He disclosed that a hackathon that would facilitate the possible use of indigenous solutions in implementing the act was part of the activities lined up for the 2024 Data Privacy Week.

“We are looking at what kind of technology that we can deploy in terms of implementation of the mandate, enforcement, investigation, reporting, or any other thing that will come up.

“It is like creating a formidable ecosystem, and we want to have indigenous solutions that can address some of these areas,’’ he said.

Mr Olatunji said winners of the hackathon would be awarded, as well as organisations that had done well in data protection and compliant regulation.

The commissioner also disclosed that NDPC would partner with the Nigeria Association of Computing Students (NACOS) to deepen awareness of data privacy protection.

He recalled that, in the previous years, the commission engaged a handful of schools to educate them on data privacy protection.

“We are widening the scope this year and encouraging stakeholders to go to schools to preach the gospel of data privacy. When we started, we engaged with six schools, which increased to 16 and 33 schools. Last year, we reached out to over 60 schools.

“This year, we are working with NACOS to ensure that we do this in all universities in Nigeria to expand the scope,’’ he said.

(NAN)