National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has urged federal, public institutions, Information Technology (IT) service providers to strictly comply with guidelines on hosting government data locally for easy governance.

The Director General of NITDA, Dr Isa Pantami, said this on Thursday in a statement issued in Abuja.

Pantami said the need for compliance was according to the agency’s Section 14 of the Regulatory Guidelines for Nigerian Content Development in Information Communication Technology (ICT).

He added that “NITDA will like to bring to the attention of federal public institutions, IT service providers to Federal Government and all data management firms doing business in Nigeria on the need for strict compliance to its guidelines”.

“This section provides framework for repatriation and hosting of all Nigerian government data within the country. The agency notes that prior to the operation and full implementation of the Regulatory Guidelines for Nigerian Content Development in ICT, a sizeable component of government data was hosted outside Nigeria,” he said.

He, however, said that some organisations were adhering to requirements of the guidelines, but more needed to be done to ensure more organisations complied.

The director general added that the agency as mandated by law, would be penalising erring institutions.

“The situation has now changed as NITDA’s compliance monitoring activity reveals that substantial data assets of the Federal Government are already hosted in Nigeria”.

“These include the Government Integrated and Financial Management Information System, Integrated Tax System, Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System and the Treasury Single Account (TSA) have been repatriated and now hosted within the country.”

Pantami said “we wish to note that a small fraction of government data was still hosted outside Nigeria without approval of the agency”.

“We understand that for some federal public institutions, a consideration of cost and other technicalities may have affected the full repatriation of government data”.

“In these cases, NITDA is to be notified promptly as government has put measures in place to commence sanctioning of violators in line with provisions of the NITDA Act 2007 and other relevant laws in Nigeria,” he further said.

He reiterated that government data was national resources needed to be hosted locally for easy analysis, improvement of governance and development of the country.

The NITDA boss also advised Data Centers and Cloud Service Providers operating in the country to comply with requirements of information security management, global best practices,standards for better service delivery.

“Data Hosting Service Providers are required to register their competencies and capabilities in line with requirements of the Guidelines for Nigerian Content Development in ICT to ensure adequate oversight.

“This will ensure that the citizens and government data are properly protected,”pantami said. (NAN)