REPEALING OF NITDA’S ACT, NECESSARY TO STRENGTHEN NATIONAL DIGITAL ECONOMY POLICY, SAYS ABDULLAHI

revamp Nigeria’s economy, build trust and protect the rights and interests of players in the ecosystem.”

Abdullahi added that the review of the NITDA Act 2007 would serve as an enabler for the growth and development of Nigeria’s digital economy. He highlighted some areas that the planned repeal would address to include creating a framework for: promoting the startup ecosystem; promoting indigenous products and services through standardisation; collaborating with the requisite public and private sector partners to carry out activities that would assist in electronic waste disposal; and fostering collaboration to facilitate the implementation of robust cybersecurity measures aimed at building trust in Nigeria’s digital economy.

Others areas include facilitating capacity building through the digital literacy and skills initiative; entrenching stakeholder participation in developing regulations through the rule-making process; and promoting the safe use of digital technologies, including social media, for the attainment of national objectives.

The NITDA boss said the introduction and implementation of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) by NITDA, which is a subsidiary legislation enshrined to ensure data protection and privacy of Nigerian citizens; and the implementation of the IT Project Clearance initiative that supported the federal government’s fight against corruption, that resulted in over N22.45 billion savings with significant increase in local content consumptions by over 300 per cent in four years, were some of the achievements of NITDA, despite the limitations posed by the current NITDA Act.