By Joseph Erunke

ABUJA–THE Public Private Development Centre (PPDC),has appealed to the federal government to prioritize data privacy and protection law in the country.

The organisation said government can achieve this by presenting a bill to the National Assembly seeking amendment to the extant law on Digital Technology Systems (DTSs) to ensure procurement and use of DTSs do not infringe on the rights of citizens,their privacy,protection and personal information.

Speaking in Abuja,Tuesday, during the presentation of a report on Government Procurement of Digital Technology Systems (DTSs) in Nigeria,,PPDC’s Head of Communication,Nnenna Eze,regretted that civil society organisations were conspicuously missing during procurement processes in the country.

Noting that CSOs were expected to be present during the opening of bids,she regretted that the reverse was always the case in the country,as according to her, “most times, CSOs are not invited to the bid opening processes.”

The report showed that most Nigerians, including those located in the urban areas were not aware of laws and policies that guide the procurement processes in the country just as it showed that DTSs budget and procurement plans were not always available to the public.

“For public access, such information is expected to be available on the public procurement platform the Nigeria Open Contracting Portal (NOCOPO). Most of this information is, however, missing from the platform,” the report said.

“Citizens including those located in the urban areas are not aware of the laws and policies that guide the procurement and use of DTSs,” it read.

It,however, said government has increased procurement of DTSs to unify all identification information into a central database,noting that the growing demand for Nigerian citizens to register for their National Identification Numbers (NINs) and voter’s cards was driving the government’s continued technology investment in the National Identification Management Database,NIMS.

It read: “Currently, NIMS is being integrated with every other identification database in the country, such as the voter’s register, the BVN, the Immigration Service, the driver’s license, and the telecommunications companies. This indicates an effort by the government to unify all identification information into a central database.

“With the unification of all databases, digital and policy experts are pushing for a new law, the Data Protection Bill, which will create an identification management authority- the Office of the Independent Data Protection Commissioner responsible for the regulation of data collection.

“The proliferation of databases for citizens’ information increases the opportunity
for illegal access to citizens’ data, and the law aims to address such concerns.”

Speaking also,the organisation’s Chief Operating Officer, Gift Maxwell, said as the world enters into the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4G) it has become increasingly important for government to transition into the digital process service delivery.

“In light of this there will be more investment in the digital technology systems, however, with the continuous investment and procurement in digital technology systems, it has become very necessary to assess how this technology drives the nation’s economy and how it affects our citizens rights.

It is in line with this that this body aims to understand how government procurement of such digital systems such as artificial intelligence artificial recognition and digital identity in Nigeria.

“The is also going to examine Nigerian citizens awareness of the procurement and investment on this digital systems by the government and how to use these technology systems in a way that it will affect human rights and privacy of citizens.

The study has assessed the procurement method and processes used in laws that guides the digital technology procurement systems and the laws also that guides the digital technologies themselves. It also assess how open the Nigerian government is in budgeting and procurement of these digital technologies systems.

The study also look at the types of digital technology systems, the purpose of procurement of these technologies and the Ministries, Departments and Agencies responsible for the use of and management of these digital technologies,” she said.