NASS vow to pass data protection bill within 30 days

The federal lawmakers vowed to “do justice to the bill” and give legal backing to the agency.

News Agency of Nigeria • September 26, 2022

National Assembly Complex

The National Assembly says the Data Protection Bill will be passed into law within 30 days of receiving it from the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Cybercrime, Yakubu Oseni, made the promise at a one-day sensitisation workshop on data protection organised for members of the National Assembly in Abuja on Monday.

Mr Oseni said since the federal government has created the Nigerian Data Protection Bureau (NDPB) for data protection, there is a need to enact a law to guide its operations.

“I want to assure you that as National Assembly members, we will make sure that we do justice to the bill. We need to give legal backing to the agency.

“We are waiting for them to bring the bill, and we will ensure it gets to the president within one month,” he said.

According to the senator, this legislation is supposed to have seen the light of the day since 2019.

“But unfortunately, when the bill was sent to the president, it was not assented to. Now that it is coming from the executive side, I believe it will see the light of the,” he said.

Also, the chairman of the House Committee on ICT and Cyber Crime, Abubakar Lado, assured the agency that the House of Representatives would expedite action on the bill.

“We want to assure the agency that anytime the bill comes to us, we will ensure its speedy passage,” he said.

Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, who spoke virtually, harped on the importance of the bill to data privacy and confidentiality.

“This bill will ensure the privacy and confidentiality of the data of our citizens,” he said.

The National Commissioner of NDPB, Vincent Olatunji, while responding to questions said the bill would be ready by October.

Mr Olatunji said the agency had created over 8,000 jobs by certifying over 5,000 data protection experts.

The project coordinator, Nigeria Digital Identification for Development (ID4D), Solomon Odole, said all relevant stakeholders needed to be carried along to avoid hiccups with the bill.

(NAN)

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