Over 500,000 jobs exist in Nigeria’s data protection sector – NDPB

Over 500,000 direct and indirect jobs exist in Nigeria’s data protection sector, the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB) has said.

The NDPB’s National Commissioner, Dr Vincent Olatunji, disclosed this at a one-day capacity building on data protection and privacy for members of the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA) on Sunday in Abuja.

Olatunji said Nigerians should leverage opportunities that abound in the data protection ecosystem to earn a decent living.

The national commissioner said there was a huge gap in the data protection ecosystem that had the capacity to provide wealth and millions of jobs for Nigerians and promote the digital economy.

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Across the globe, he said, people were losing jobs while others were being engaged in the digital economy sector.

To be part of people gaining jobs, he said Nigerians needed “to re-skill, learn digital skills because technology is changing, a new world is emerging with the Internet of Things, big data, 3D printing, and more.”

He said: “In Nigeria, we have about 500,000 data controllers and processors, and according to law, each of these data controllers is meant to have a Data Protection Officer (DPO) that ensures data protection compliance by the controller.

“In Nigeria presently, we are barely 10,000 certified DPOs, and that number is not commensurate with the number of data controllers in the country.”

Olatunji said the gap was huge, adding that Nigerians could develop themselves with skills to qualify as DPOs. According to him, the data protection sector is an open field that anyone can venture into as long as they can read and write.

He said: “In the past two years, the data protection ecosystem has created over 9,000 jobs, it is an ecosystem that can create many direct and indirect jobs.’’

The Lead, Strategy, Partnerships and Communications of NDPB, Officer I, Mrs Leena Abba, said data protection was important to reduce incidences of crime, ensure personal security, and enhance customer retention in terms of business engagement, among many other reasons.