The House of Representatives at its plenary session on Thursday, 31 May 2018 urged the Federal Ministry of Communications to address all activities undermining the ability of Telecommunication Firms operating in Nigeria from complying with Data l laws. This followed a motion presented by Hon. Chukwuemeka Ujam (PDP: Enugu) stressing the importance of the Federal Government in mandating the localization of data for national security reasons.
Speaking further, Hon. Ujam enumerated on the vast regulatory responsibilities conferred on the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) over the ICT sector pursuant to its Establishment Act of 2003. Some of the functions of the NCC include mandating the compliance of service providers under the Consumer Code of Practice Regulations, 2007 and the Universal Consumer Bill of Rights. He further noted that there was also a Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Guideline for Nigerian content development in communication and information technology that required all ICT Companies to host all government and consumer data locally. He said that this became obtainable in most countries after the infamous revelations by Snowden’s WikiLeaks, which revealed the surveillance programmes pursued by the US National Security Agency (NSA). He added that keeping data within national borders had gained acceptance globally as many countries pay particular attention to data privacy issues and have adopted stringent measures to preserve local data.
In addition, Hon. Ujam stated that in view of the importance of storing local data, the Office of the Nigerian Content Development in ICT (ONC) had established a sustainable institutional framework to enforce NITDA’s Regulatory Guidelines for Nigerian Content Development in ICT and had also hosted the 1st Annual Summit on Data Localization in Nigeria in collaboration with NITDA on 26 January 2016 for that purpose. He stated that Article 14.1.2 of the Guidelines address data and information management and compel data and information management firms to host government data locally. A breach of the said Article is a crime under Sections 17 (4) and 18 of the NITDA Act of 2007.
Hon. Ujam also noted some of the security implications of storing citizens and government data outside Nigerian borders emphasizing the importance of providing additional safeguards to privacy protection and make data easily accessible to law enforcement agencies in Nigeria in line with national security objectives. He also highlighted the current trend of some telecommunication firms who relocate their network operation centres to India warning that it could expose Nigerian citizens and the country at large to security threats. He summarized that Nigeria’s data security was in danger by such development as foreigners from outside the shores of Nigeria could monitor the centres.
In addition to its earlier Resolution, the House mandated its Committee on Information Technology to ensure compliance.
