NITDA Convenes Roundtable on Decolonizing Technology in Africa
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) says the representatives of Africa’s biggest technology and law firms, together with African Union (AU) and the governments, will be the key guests of its forthcoming ‘Executive Roundtable’.
The roundtable, according to Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director-General of NITDA, is themed, “Big Tech and Privacy: Evolving an African Data Strategy”.
He made this known at a virtual press briefing while unveiling activities for the “National Privacy Week 2021”.
Abdullahi said the top level session would help Africa begin a process of decolonizing technology, and help her achieve some level of control over its data.
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He also revealed that NITDA has inaugurated a Data Breach Investigation Team (DBIT), made up of IT professionals, lawyers and the police force.
“Their assignment is to investigate allegations of breach and make recommendations of actions to be taken on each case, through the Implementation Committee. The Police team is also empowered to invite, arrest, interrogate and prosecute erring offenders,” Mr. Abdullahi said.
In December 2020, the NITDA boss, said their agency was appointed as a full member of the Common Thread Network (CTN), a network of Commonwealth nations’ data protection authorities.
He added: “This strategic alliance would provide needed support in capacity development, mentoring, and cross border enforcement. The impact of this development will be amazingly limitless.”
Inuwa Abdullahi, assured that NITDA will continue to lay necessary structures to deepen data protection implementation in the country, as it awaits the passage of the Data Protection Bill.
By PRNigeria
