Nigeria currently needs more than 500,000 data protection officers, the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) says.

Vincent Olatunji, the NDPC’s national commissioner, disclosed this to journalists in Abuja on Monday.

The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) had, on January 8, sent letters to the heads of polytechnics and mono-technics, directing the unbundling of HND computer science courses into four specialised areas.

The areas included artificial intelligence, networking and cloud computing, software and web development, and cyber security and data protection.

“I am glad that this is coming at this time because it is like giving credence to what we are doing and identifying the areas we need to focus on.

“There is a deficit of manpower in these areas, and in an area like data protection, we need a minimum of 500,000 data protection officers.

“The certified ones in the country are not more than 10,000, hence the dire need for experts in the area to bridge the skills gap,’’ he said.

Mr Olatunji said the commission was working to set up a body whereby trainers could come together and identify special institutions, universities, and polytechnics to train data protection officers.

He also said the five strategic pillars of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, including innovation, entrepreneurship and capital, had AI development as its major component.

Mr Olatunji, however, said there was a need to consider existing curriculums to reflect the change in line with best practices for global competitiveness.

According to him, this is an added advantage to the commission, and it will be happy to work with NBTE to achieve results. 

(NAN)