The Federal Government, through the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, granted accreditation to the Institute of Information Management for carrying out examinations and certification of data protection professionals to achieve global competitiveness.
This was disclosed on Monday by the National Commissioner of NDPC, Dr. Vincent Olatunji, while presenting licence to IIM in Abuja, according to Nairametrics.
Olatunji said granting the licence was part of the commission’s measures to implement Executive Orders 003 and 005.
In addition, He stated that certification of data protection professionals in the country would reduce capital flight, generate more than 500,000 jobs, and encourage other professions to be qualified.
Olatunji said that local content in the sector would be enhanced by having an institute to train and certify Nigerians, even though some of Nigeria’s data protection experts have been trained or certified abroad.
“We are trying to ensure the implementation of Executive Orders 003 and 005 to promote local content in Nigeria.
“Most of us who are certified data protection officers have international certifications; we pay some dollars to write exams as well as maintain the certificates. We are trying to domesticate this in Nigeria by having a national certification process.
“Looking at our population, we need over 500,000 certified data protection officers. We cannot afford to allow capital flight in this area,” he said.
The National Commissioner also confirmed that the Commission is looking at issuing licences throughout Africa.
He said the Commission is working on a pan-African initiative for data professionals to obtain national certification in Nigeria and be able to carry out their activities throughout Africa.
“It is a way of creating jobs for our people, reducing capital flight, and developing global human capital in the data protection ecosystem.
“We have also gone further to develop the training model which is unique to us and that is what all the trainers in Nigeria will be using,” Olatunji said.
He noted that the licensing would also create jobs for already licensed Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCOs), who would be accredited to train prospective professionals to sit for data protection examinations. According to him, the national data protection certification will be a historic legacy that will transcend administrations and meet global standards.
Meanwhile, the President of the Institute of Information Management, Dr. Oyedokun Oyewole pointed out that the certification process started in 2021.
According to Oyewole, the gap in the ecosystem of data protection would be bridged by a licence.
He assured Nigerians that the institute is committed to being the best in data protection education in the country.
