Tinubu assents to Data Protection Bill
By Ibiyemi Mathew
Nigeria’s President, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has signed the Nigeria Data Protection Bill, 2023 into law.
The National Commissioner, Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB), Dr Vincent Olatunji, said this at the NDPD Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan(SRAP) validation workshop in Abuja.
It will be recalled that former President Muhammadu Buhari approved the transmission of the bill to the National Assembly as an Executive Bill through the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation and also established the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau on the 4th of February, 2022.
The Bureau was mandated to, inter alia, implement the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) and to coordinate the passage of an enabling Act for data protection.
The central objective of the Bill is to safeguard the fundamental rights and freedoms, and the interests of data subjects, as guaranteed under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, by providing for the regulation of processing of personal data; promoting data processing practices that safeguard the security of personal data and privacy of data subjects; ensuring that personal data is processed in a fair, lawful and accountable manner; protecting data subjects’ rights, and providing means of recourse and remedies, in the event of the breach of the data subject’s rights; ensuring that data controllers and data processors fulfil their obligations to data subjects; establishing an impartial, independent, and effective regulatory Commission to superintend over data protection and privacy issues, and supervise data controllers and data processors; and strengthen the legal foundations of the national digital economy and guarantee the participation of Nigeria in the regional and global economies through the beneficial trusted use of personal data.
The bill was sent to the Senate and House of Representatives for consideration and passage on Tuesday, April 4 2023 via a letter from former President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Now an Act, the new law establishes the Nigeria Data Protection Commission and replaces the NDPB established by former President Buhari in February 2022,” Dr Vincent revealed.
