NCC, NDPC signal MoU on information privateness enforcement

The Nigerian Communications Fee and the Nigeria Knowledge Safety Fee have signed a memorandum of understanding to deepen cooperation on information privateness and safety enforcement within the telecommunications sector, as regulators intensify efforts to safeguard Nigerians’ private data in a quickly digitising economic system.

The MoU was signed on Thursday on the NCC headquarters in Abuja, with officers from each companies describing the settlement as a vital step towards stronger, coordinated regulation of knowledge controllers and processors working in Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.

Talking on the ceremony, the Nationwide Commissioner of the NDPC, Vincent Olatunji, stated the partnership mirrored the rising significance of private information safety to residents’ rights and nationwide improvement.

“We’re set as much as maintain one thing that could be very important to our civil situation and to Nigeria as a rustic. All of us give out our data everywhere in the world. When you give out your information, you may have handed it over to a 3rd social gathering that you simply not have management over,” Olatunji stated.

He stated the worldwide shift towards stricter information safety was pushed by the necessity to defend residents from misuse of data shared in public and business areas, stressing that private information was a elementary proper.

Based on him, this yr’s international information privateness theme, ‘Personal Your Knowledge’, underscored the necessity for people to know and train management over how their information is used.

“Knowledge controllers and processors should obey the legal guidelines and rules governing information privateness. As an information topic, you may have the best to train your rights. That’s the reason you will need to have a look at information privateness in a approach that advantages our folks and our nation,” he stated.

Olatunji recalled that Nigeria started formal efforts on information safety in 2019 and now has full nationwide laws on information privateness and safety, following the regulation’s enactment in June 2023.

He famous that efficient enforcement required shut collaboration with sector regulators, significantly in telecoms, given the quantity of knowledge generated inside the trade.

“It’s at all times troublesome to enter a sector and implement your mandate successfully with out involving the regulator of that sector,” he stated. “We’re not taking on the mandate of the telecom regulator. We’re including worth to what you might be doing, and also you add worth to what we’re doing.”

He described the telecom sector as strategic to Nigeria’s socio-economic improvement, noting that almost each Nigerian owned a minimum of one cell line, leading to large volumes of private information held by cell community operators.

“How do you make sure that the rights, pursuits, and freedoms of Nigerians are adequately protected by these information controllers and processors?” he requested. “We can not do it with out you. It’s your mandate to manage this sector.”

Olatunji stated the MoU was the results of months of engagement between the 2 establishments and shouldn’t be handled as a ceremonial doc.

“We don’t need this MoU signed and stored on the shelf. We wish to signal and start implementation instantly to make sure that the privateness and safety of Nigerians’ information is correctly taken care of,” he stated.

In his remarks, the Government Vice-Chairman and Chief Government Officer of the NCC, Aminu Maida, stated the settlement mirrored the evolving position of the telecom regulator in a data-driven economic system.

He stated the fee had efficiently overseen Nigeria’s transition from about 500,000 phone strains to just about 200 million energetic strains, connecting over 100 million distinctive subscribers, however the sector was now coming into a brand new section.

“We’re not simply connecting folks,” Maida stated. “We now have a mandate to allow Nigerians, allow companies, and allow residents, particularly as we transfer into the period of automation and synthetic intelligence.”

Based on him, information had turn out to be the spine of that new period, as rising applied sciences relied on data generated by customers of digital platforms.

He confused that regulators had an obligation not solely to allow entry to know-how but in addition to make sure that residents retained management over their private information.

“Individuals have to know that they’ve information, they want to pay attention to the info they’re producing, and they should know their rights round that information,” he stated. “In the event that they don’t understand it, any individual will monetise it. When platforms are stated to be free, they aren’t actually free. Anyone is utilizing your information.”

Maida warned that failure to correctly govern information may pose dangers to nationwide sovereignty, significantly as synthetic intelligence techniques more and more relied on massive volumes of contemporary information to stay related.

“The long run is information,” he stated. “If we don’t get the rules of how we govern it proper, even our sovereignty as a nation is threatened.”

He assured the NDPC of the NCC’s full assist in implementing the MoU, including that the fee would work collaboratively to make sure communication networks remained sturdy whereas defending residents’ information.

In November 2025, The PidomNigeria reported that the NCC stated it was revising key regulatory devices governing Nigeria’s telecoms trade to handle rising dangers within the digital house and be certain that operators adjust to stricter requirements on web use, information safety, and on-line security.

Maida stated the transfer was essential to maintain tempo with fast technological adjustments that had “revolutionised communications and are pushing the bounds on established ideas.”