Sexual abuse reporting app gets FG's support

Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has assured that victims of sexual abuse in Nigeria will have the opportunity of presenting their cases through ICT without fear of stigmatization. Abdullahi gave this assurance while receiving the CEO of Shamrock Saadatu Aliyu in his office in Abuja on Wednesday. Shamrock is a women and youth-centric tech innovation hub that developed HELPIO, an android based application used in reporting sexual abuse.

The support came as a directive of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, that NITDA liaise with the young startup, mentor her, monitor her progress and support the system under the stipulated regulation. With regards to awareness in rural areas, Abdullahi said that the hub’s sexual abuse reporting application would be given adequate publicity on the agency’s social media handles and the NITDA Impact weekly television programme. He said the agency would come up with a start-up innovation challenge to get the development of the application on iOS devices.

During the hub’s presentation, Abdullahi considered that large amount of personal information will be collected in the investigation of sexual abuse cases and therefore advised that it was necessary for the hub to align with the standards of the Nigerian Data Protection Regulations.

He said that the agency would link the hub with a Data Protection Compliance Organization to ensure compliance with the regulations.