The Nigeria Data Protection Commission has set machinery in motion to enforce data subjects rights and promote trust in Nigeria’s digital economy ecosystem. In its Guidance Notice titled, “Guidance Notice On The Filing Of Data Protection Compliance Audit Returns (CAR)”, the Commission adviced data controllers and processors to file compliance audit returns or risk being excluded from the National Data Protection Adequacy Programme (NaDPAP) Whitelist. The data controllers and processors comprises banks, telcos, hospitals, schools, ICT companies, data centres among others.
Being excluded from the NaDPAP Whitelist will mean that the firm or institution is deemed not to have complied to required guidelines, and does not meet the stipulated measures, and therefore risk punitive measures from the NDPC.
It will be recalled that the National Commissioner/CEO, NDPC, Dr. Vincent Olatunji recently disclosed that the Commission is carrying out free induction training for designated Data Protection Officers in both public and private sectors so as to ensure that Nigeria can contribute competitively to the global digital economy.
The Commission further adviced that agents and contractors, who carry out data processing on behalf of data controllers, should be trained and on-boarded on the Commission’s portal.
