Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC) have agreed to provide a framework that will safeguard personal and corporate transactions within the exporting community.

L-r: Dr. Vincent Olatuniji, national Commissioner/CEO, NDPC and Nonye Ayeni, executive director/CEO, NEPC

Nonye Ayeni, executive director/CEO of NEPC, disclosed this while receiving Dr. Vincent Olatuniji, national Commissioner/CEO of NDPC in her office in Abuja

Ayeni noted that with the huge number of registered exporters in the country striving to fulfil several international contract obligations for the export of Made-in-Nigeria products, there was a need to protect these sensitive data to ensure that Nigerian businesses remain competitive in global trade.

She observed that safeguarding personal and corporate data will further attract positive endorsements from the international community and help increase Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) into the country.

Olatuniji revealed that the NDPC was established primarily to collaborate with critical stakeholders to safeguard the rights of natural persons to data privacy, foster safe conduct of transactions involving the exchange of personal data, prevent manipulation of personal data and ensure that Nigerian businesses remain competitive in international trade through the safeguards afforded by a just and equitable legal framework on data protection.

He implored the NEPC to establish a data protection and control unit, as the unit he adviced will determine the purpose and manner for processing data to ensure that the methods by which data is collected are strictly in line with the principles of data collection.

Towards this end,  Olatunji said the NDPC was willing to provide capacity building on data protection and control for officers of the Council to make the NEPC compliant with global best practices.

The Federal Government’s commitment to ensure food security in Nigeria through the infusion of emerging technologies in the agricultural sector has necessitated the collaboration between the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the National Agriculture Development Fund (NADF) to sign a Memorandum of Understanding, (MoU) that aims to boost productivity in Agriculture.

The NITDA’s Director General, Kashifu Inuwa, CCIE, revealed this on Thursday while receiving the NADF Executive Secretary, Muhammed Abu, and his team at the Agency Corporate Headquarter in Abuja for the signing of the MoU.

Inuwa said “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR is big and loud on boosting agriculture to ensure food security and today you cannot talk about boosting agriculture without talking about digital technology. And that is the reason we are here to sign an MoU to see how we can infuse emerging technologies into Agriculture so we can boost productivity in Agriculture.”

He said “Our Minister is quite interested in this as he personally has his own farm where he is doing all these and he started the conversation with you, our teams worked to draft the MoU, both legal teams reviewed the document and today we are here to sign the MoU for immediate implementation.”

“We have started our initiatives around agriculture like the National Adopted Village for Smart Agriculture (NAVSA), we have a demo farm here in Abuja, and we have been partnering with Universities across the country doing research and Startups to develop technologies and do proof of concepts with the technologies on farmlands,” said Inuwa.

“This year, we gave grants to Startups who have ideas on how to use emerging technologies to boost agriculture. And we are working with some of them in existing farms across the country to demonstrate how technology can boost productivity in that space,” he added.

Speaking at the signing the Executive Secretary of NADF Mohammed Abu Ibrahim remarked that the nexus between Agriculture and Technology cannot be over emphasized, as the agricultural sector is facing some temporary challenges like the issues of funding, climate change, insecurity and many more.

“We have seen interesting technological patterns which have given a lot of impact and  optimisation in our sector like AI, WAV, IoT and many more and we feel like without optimising agriculture and looking at it from this evidence-based perspective as a Fund we may not achieve much.

“There is no denying the fact that empirical evidence, especially data backed evidence, would help us to allocate our limited resources better. So, in our stride to see that we are doing a lot more with less we have decided to come in and especially be part of monitoring and evaluation which will eventually direct us towards achieving that mantra of ‘doing more with less’ and that is why we are here.”

He said the Fund is hopeful that this will be the first of many more of such collaborations.

Nigerian naira has been listed as one of the worst-performing currencies in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2024.

This is according to the World Bank’s latest Africa’s Pulse report.

As of August 2024, the naira had depreciated by approximately 43% year-to-date, ranking it among the weakest currencies alongside the Ethiopian birr and the South Sudanese pound.

The decline is attributed to surging demand for U.S. dollars in Nigeria’s parallel market, limited dollar inflows, and slow foreign exchange disbursements by the central bank.

The report highlights that financial institutions, non-financial end-users, and money managers driving dollar demand have further pressured the naira.

Despite Nigeria’s foreign exchange market reforms, including the liberalization of the official exchange rate in June 2023, these efforts have been insufficient to stabilize the currency.

Broader economic challenges, including limited foreign reserves and inflationary pressures, have exacerbated the naira’s struggle.

The currency’s depreciation has significantly impacted domestic prices, particularly for imported goods, worsening conditions for Nigerian consumers.

However, some recovery was noted recently, with the naira appreciating by 5.69% against the dollar on October 14, improving from N1,641.27/$1 to N1,552.92/$1. Despite this, foreign exchange turnover dropped by 44.27% within the same period.

The World Bank projects that Nigeria’s economy will grow by 3.3% in 2024, with slight acceleration to 3.6% between 2025 and 2026 as reforms take hold.

However, inflation remains a concern, particularly following the removal of fuel subsidies in mid-2023, which has caused gasoline prices to triple and increased the cost of transportation and logistics across the country.