Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (INEC) is seeking firmer collaboration with the country’s data protection commission to enhance security around the biometer voter registry.
This was the key point during a recent meeting between Prof Yakubu Mahmood, chairman INEC, and Dr Vincent Olatunji, national commissioner and chief executive officer of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC).
According to a post on the NDPC’s Facebook account, the discussion between the officials touched on how the two bodies can work together in order to keep the data of over 93 million Nigerian voters safe and secure.
Speaking, the INEC Chairman emphasized the importance of data protection in the electoral process, without which there can be no polls.
He said their partnership with the NDPC will enable the election management agency have a better understanding of importance aspects of data protection including compliance.
In his own remarks, Olatunji talked about data protection from a historical perspective and highlighted efforts by the government of Nigeria to make data protection an integral aspect of the country’s digital revolution.
Such efforts, he said, reached a milestone last year with the enactment of the Personal Data Protection Act by President Bola Tinubu.
Olatunji noted that because the consequences of data protection inadequacies are grave, it is necessary for institutions like INEC, which holds the biggest voter registration database on the continent, to leave no stone unturned in ensuring maximum security for such data through rigorous compliance measures.
This, he mentioned, includes steps such as designing a privacy policy, naming Data Protection Officers at the national and state levels, and establishing a working relationship with a data protection compliance organization.
As part of the partnership, the NDPC boss pledged to support INEC by offering training and capacity building for the election agency’s staff and Data Protection Officers on ways of better safeguarding data whose management they are a part of.
