President Tinubu has signed the Nigeria Data Protection Bill

Tinubu signed Nigeria Data Protection Bill

President Bola Tinubu has signed the Nigeria Data Protection Bill, 2023 into law.

The Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023 provides a legal framework for the protection of personal information and the practice of data protection in Nigeria

Dr Vincent Olatunji, the National Commissioner, Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB), said this at the NDPD Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan(SRAP) validation workshop in Abuja.

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.”

The Commission will be led by a National Commissioner with the responsibility of regulating the processing of personal information

This is the third law Tinubu would assent to barely three weeks after his inauguration as Nigerian President.

On Monday President Bola Tinubu signed the Student Loan Bill into law which allows Nigerian students to access loans from the government. 

Core objectives Of the Data protection Bill 

The statement noted that 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.

It said some of the key provisions of the bill include the regulation and processing of personal data; promoting data processing practices that safeguard the security of personal data and privacy of data subjects; and ensuring that personal data is processed in a fair, lawful and accountable manner.

Other core functions are protecting data subjects’ rights as well as providing means of recourse and remedies in the event of breaches; 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; strengthening the legal foundations of the national digital economy to guarantee the participation of Nigeria in the regional and global economies through the beneficial trusted use of personal data.