He received this prestigious recognition at the recent “50 Most Valuable Personalities in Nigeria’s Digital Economy” event held in Lagos.

Organised by IT Edge News Africa, the event brought together key stakeholders from various sectors, including prominent industry associations such as the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), and the Association of Licensed Data Protection Organisations of Nigeria (ALDAPCON).

Dr. Vincent Olatunji, the National Commissioner/CEO of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Ike Nnamani, CEO of Digital Realty Nigeria, and Prof. Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, a distinguished scholar and politician, delivered keynote presentations.

Olatunji emphasized the crucial role of data protection in the digital economy, while Yilwatda outlined essential steps for Nigeria to maximize opportunities in the digital economy and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

Nnamani, whose presentation focused on the “Myths and Realities of the Nigerian Digital Economy,” underscored the accelerated digitization of both consumer and enterprise sectors in Nigeria, driving demand for digital skills and data center capacity.

Gathering recognizes Owoeye’s exceptional contributions to Nigeria’s digital economy

The gathering recognized Owoeye’s exceptional contributions to Nigeria’s digital economy. With a remarkable career in Nigeria’s ICT/telecoms sector, Wale Owoeye has successfully steered Cedarview Communications to expand its presence to Port Harcourt and Abuja, offering a wide range of Value Added Services (VAS) in the telecoms market.

Cedarview has also established strategic alliances in Asia, Europe, and the US to facilitate growth in its operational areas.

Additionally, Owoeye serves as the VAS Coordinator for the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), further solidifying his impact on Nigeria’s digital economy.

Published since 2009, IT Edge News Africa is one of Africa’s leading technology and business publications.

The Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023 provides a legal framework for the protection of personal information, and the practice of data protection in Nigeria which ALDAPCON has aggressively championed.

The new law establishes the Nigeria Data Protection Commission and replaces the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB) established by President Buhari in February 2022.

Led by Dr, Vincent Olatunji, the National Commissioner, the Commission is charged with the responsibility for regulating the practice of data protection amongst others.

“We want to commend Mr. President for this progressive Act. We congratulate Nigerians and particularly note the great works put in by your agency to ensure this bill is passed,” said Ivan Anya Chairman of ALDAPCON, who recently led other members of the association including its Secretary, Aliyu Abdulaziz, and Amb. Olusegun Olugbile to the newly created Nigeria Data Protection Commission where the association met with the National Commissioner, Dr. Vincent Olatunji and other members of the Commission.

According to Anya, the Data Protection Act will help enhance the data privacy and confidentiality of Nigerians, enable effective dataflow, boost Nigeria’s steadily growing data protection industry necessitating new levels of skillsets and jobs that will impact significantly on the economy and protect the  country’s data sovereignty as well as enhance GDP.

The new law will ensure better clarity in the roles of data processors and data controllers, the association stated even as it urged the Commission to increase its level of engagement with ALDAPCON with respective to the Commission’s various activities.

“We are here as stakeholders to grow the industry and as a partner of the Commission to ensure continuous engagement with you as a regulator for the overall health of the industry,” the association stated.

Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCOs) are licensed by the Commission and their roles include monitoring compliance with the extant data regulations and ensuring that data controllers do not breach the provisions of the Act.

Among others  DPCOs offer data protection regulations compliance and breach services for data controllers and data administrators; data protection and privacy advisory services; data protection training and awareness services; data regulations contracts drafting and advisory; data protection and privacy breach remediation planning and support services; information privacy audit; data privacy breach impact assessment; data protection and privacy due diligence investigation; and outsourced data protection officer among others within the framework of the Act.

Anya also requested the Commission to readily make the signed copy of the bill available as this will be useful to ALDAPCON members who would be carrying out comparative analysis as well as development of white papers.

“Now that, there is a statute to guide all activities around data privacy and data protection in Nigeria”, ALDAPCON urged for a more robust collaboration between the regulator and operators in a way that will better benefit the country in areas that include awareness creation and training which the law empowers DPCOs to do.

The National Commissioner in response applauded ALDAPCON for its steady growth as an association and its increasing relevance in the industry. He encouraged the DPCOs to take the Code of Practice serious and render quality service to their clients.

He agreed with the association on the need for strong awareness around issues of data protection and urged DPCOs to leverage the media to build a strong industry voice even as he assured that the Commission will to provide a copy of the signed Bill after necessary gazette is complete.

Also, Dr. Olatunji while assuring the DPCOs of the Commission’s support urged them to employ quality staff to enhance the growth of their respective companies and be strategic in building strong network amongst themselves.

Mr. Ivan Anya, the Chairman of ALDAPCON, in a press conference, said the Data Protection bill when passed into law will address the data privacy and confidentiality of Nigerians, enable secure dataflow, economic development, and improve national security, job creation and better global positioning.

He said this will also enable data processors and data controllers to have significant clarification of duties and responsibility for the protection of rights of data subjects (citizens).

“From inception of our work in the industry we actually face a whole lot of this level of resistance, some of them are still there, some are still waiting for sectoral regulators to advise them as to what direction they should take, not understanding by themselves why they should ensure compliance. We also have the issue of technicality that is prevalent within the ecosystem; instances where you have businesses hosting Nigerians’ data outside of the country. You need to ensure that such hosts of Nigerians data are hosted in full compliance with the Nigerian data protection regulation.

“The big issue is the aspect of the law. We are hopeful that as soon as the data protection bill is passed, it will address a whole lot of the technical and procedural issues we face now in terms of compliance.

“The bill is expected to contribute to the legal foundations of the digital economy of Nigeria and its participation in the regional and global economies through the beneficial, trusted use of personal data to help mitigate issues on data leakage, and ensure confidentiality and privacy of data.”

Speaking on the objectives of the association, Mr. Anya said Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCOs)  under the  umbrella body ALDAPCON as the privacy overseers in the country,  focuses   on driving  data compliance in the industry which  include to provide credible and authoritative data protection advisory to government, private and public organisations in Nigeria

“So we are currently running our second year since inception and we have been working with the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB) in championing what should help guide data protection practice in Nigeria.

“The data protection compliance model is the only one of its type globally and no other country currently practices what we do. It is called the Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement where the supervising authority in this case, the NDPB has delegated some of its functions to the DPCOs to go to business organisations and assist them achieve compliance, this is what exactly we do,”

He said the association is helping create awareness on the importance of data protection and cyber security as well as the provision of data protection regulation in Nigeria.

“[This is] in addition to being the body of knowledge for data subjects on the Nigerian data protection legislation and its execution; as well as working with stakeholders to influence and assess the impact of data protection in Nigeria.”

He added that ALDAPCON has also provided certification training in data protection as well as the implementation and filling of gaps that may arise in the course of an audit assessment of how an organisation is compliant to the data protection regulations or the laws.

Assessment in areas of default and ensuring that at every point in time businesses are in full compliant with the requirements of the regulations

He noted that the data privacy sector has recorded significant achievements.  Between 2020 and 2021, compliance recorded 68% improvement. “We are hopeful that by the time the 2022 report comes out during the data privacy week of 2023; we’ll see exactly what has happened or what level of progress has been achieved.”

He added that the need assessment audit report published early this year for 2021 shows that there has been a significant improvement in terms of compliance within the fintech sector which has been quite remarkable.

Mr. Abdullaziz Ari, the Secretary of the Association, disclosed that the Association is coming up with standards to guide compliance in the industry, developing capacity within the ecosystem  and most importantly, to create awareness on how to assist the ecosystem comply with the requirements of the regulation.

“Well, for now we try to focus mostly on the public and private sectors. The memos will help bridge the gap in the public sector as the private sector has been more responsive in terms of compliance” Ari added.