September 2, 2022

Nigeria Digital Identity for Development Project on Thursday engaged relevant stakeholders from private sector on their input to ensure passage of the data protection regulation into law.

The project Coordinator, Mr. Solomon Odole, said at the Workshop on Data Protection Law in Lagos, that the passage of data protection regulation into law was tailored to meet the need of the Nigerians.

The Digital Identification for Development (ID4D) is a project of the Federal government with the objective to enhance the Nigerian Digital Identification ecosystem.

Odole said that a nation could not truly be a sovereign state if it did not know its people or have a unique way to identify them.

He said that government’s knowledge of its people citizens and residents was fundamental to planning, governance, fiscal management, accountability, security among others.

According to him, this knowledge must begin with birth registration, and extend to house numbering, street naming and issuance of a unique identifier through a national identification system.

“This knowledge also extends to knowing who, where, social and economic circumstances of the people.

“Establishing a foundational ID is the first step to empowering people and facilitating access to basic government services.

“Civil registration and vital statistics System and the National Identity Management System are the foundational IDs in Nigeria

“Without proper identity, people are excluded from basic services that provide foundation for support,’’ he said.

According to him, one of the disbursement conditions of the project is the enactment of the Data Protection Bill.

Odole he said the project had left no stone unturned in its drive to ensure that this condition was fulfilled and that the bill was passed and assented to.

The coordinator said that the objective of the project was to increase the number of persons with a National ID number, issued by a robust and inclusive foundational ID system, that facilitated their access to services.

Also in his presentation tagged ‘Data Protection in Nigeria: The journey so far’, the National Commissioner, National Data Protection Bureau, Dr. Vincent Olatunji, highlighted challenges of data protection in Nigeria.

Olatunji highlighted limited knowledge about data protection, limited human capital with experience and funding among others.

The project is supported by developmental partners – the World Bank, French Development Agency and European Investment Bank (NAN)