NDPC lunches application, implementation directive on data protection act
In a move to safeguarde the fundamental rights and freedoms of Nigerians in the context of data privacy and protection., the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC), yesterday in Abuja launched the Nigerian Data Protection Act General Application and Implementation Directive (NDP ACT-GAID),
NDPC unveiled NDP ACT-GAID in order to push the country to the frontiers of the 4th Industrial Revolution as envisaged by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to give effect to the objectives of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023.
At a press conference to unveil the NDP Act GAID, the National Commissioner/CEO, NDPC, Dr Vincent Olatunji, commended the GAID committee members, made up of stakeholders from different sectors, for their efforts in producing the document.
He noted that the NDP Act GAID addresses technical and organisational measures in the areas of data protection principles, lawful basis of data processing, NDP Act Compliance Audit, and data subject rights, among others. He also pointed out that emerging technologies were covered in the document.
He stated that data subjects do not have to be physically present at the Commission before demanding remediation when necessary.
He said, “We have fully democratised the privacy breach remediation process for data subjects.
“We achieved this by introducing the Data Subjects’ Standard Notice to Address Grievance (SNAG), which empowers data subjects to use the instrumentality of the Commission to demand remedial action from data controllers and processors without first writing to the Commission.”
“With the introduction of the NDP Act GAID, everyone can clearly understand the contents of the Nigeria Data Protection Act. It is expected that this will help data controllers and processors clearly understand their duties to their data subjects, while data subjects also understand their rights.
The NDPC boss noted that in line with the Federal Government’s policy on Enabling Business Environment, the full implementation of the NDP Act will commence in September 2025 – that is after 6 months adding that all provisions relating to fees will commence in January 2026.
He noted that rigorous efforts went into the implementation directive, stressing that this was in line with President Tinubu’s belief that the privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic communications should be guaranteed and protected in accordance with Section 37 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic 1999 as amended.
Thus, in fulfillment of this constitutional obligation and in line with the Presidential Priority on Rule of Law (Improving Governance for Effective Service Delivery) the Commission has been engaging vigorously with data subjects, constituted authorities, corporate bodies, civil society organisations, international institutions, and the mass media.
Olatunji said “it is worthy of note that the quest for safeguarding privacy rights in the context of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence received attention in the NDP Act GAID. Practitioners in this space are enjoined to implement privacy by design and by default among other obligations.
