The National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, said on Monday that it was collaborating with relevant stakeholders to create a “Code of Conduct” for social media activities in Nigeria.
Mallam Kashifu Inuwa, DG of NITDA, said this during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja to kick off this year’s ‘National Protection Week’.
Inuwa said the effort was to protect Nigerians from data privacy intrusion.
He added that the agency was implementing measures to impose more penalties on data privacy violators, such as Loan Applications platforms that violate the privacy of their users.
“We are going to work with key stakeholders to develop a code of conduct for social media interactions in Nigeria,” he said.
He explained that only through an effective regulatory framework could Nigeria harness the full potential of the social media platform.
According to him, everything that is illegal offline is illegal online.
“For example, according to some investigative reports from some international news agencies such as CNN, Reuters, BBC and Guardian (UK), Twitter and Facebook removed some social media accounts operating in Nigeria and Ghana because they were linked to some foreigners who they were using said accounts to manipulate the public.
“Twitter categorically stated that the accounts were attempting to sow discord by engaging in conversations about social issues.
“The Nigerian Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) prohibits this egregious form of personal data intrusion and manipulation.
“By collaborating as vanguards of Nigerian sovereignty, government agencies are sending signals to the big data community that things are not going to be business as usual,” he warned.
Listing the successes recorded so far in implementing NDPR, Mr. Inuwa said that NITDA had embarked on various capacity building initiatives that resulted in the training of 5,746 Nigerians.
It said Nigeria had gone from zero data privacy audit compliance in 2018 to 635 in 2020 and over 1230 audit compliance in 2021 with Finance, Consulting, ICT, Digital Media and Manufacturing ranking as the best performing sectors in data compliance.
He added that the estimated value of the Data Protection Industry is in the amount of N4,080,000,000.
Responding to the question on the issue of data privacy breaches by Loan-Apps, Mr. Inuwa reiterated that NITDA resolved to sanction violators in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and other relevant agencies.
“We will make sure to address that challenge in collaboration with CBN; we have sanctioned some of them and we are working with other policy makers to address this challenge”, he assured.
The Nigerian News Agency recalls that the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation, NDPR, was established in 2019 to protect citizens’ data privacy and ensure a safer digital economy.
