ABUJA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has called for the protection of data to avoid unnecessary explosion to strange contents.

The President of the chamber, Mr Adetokunbo Kayode, made the call in Abuja on Tuesday at a stakeholders’ roundtable on Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

“For me as a person, anytime I receive a targeted unsolicited message from a telecommunications company or a junk or spam email, it keeps me wondering at how easy my personal data has become to operators of networks.

“Much worrying is when such messages carry some elements of commercial touch without any iota of commission to me. It is not supposed to be so in my reasoned estimation.

“I want to suggest to our regulators and the entire system to look into the possibility of harmonising our personal data system that loosely hangs while processing international passports and vehicle registration

“Other areas are driver’s licence, SIM card registration, voter’s card, bank account and national passport from different issuing authorities,’’ Kayode said.

According to him, data sourcing, receiving, taking, processing, storage, retention and transmission is a large value chain.

He noted that many countries and advanced technologies had taken cognisance of the situation  and  harnessed the potential and dividends contained therein.

“With the value chain firmly guided, guarded, regulated and enforced, a lot of economic gains have been recorded in such entities,’’ Kayode said.

He said that the chamber intended  to set up a framework with active collaboration among all  stakeholders to ensure personal data were responsibly used and to create jobs.

Mr Aminou Akadiri, the Chief Executive Officer of the Federation of West Africa Chambers of Commerce and Industry,  said the private sector would be more involved in regional economic development with President Muhamadu Buhari as the Chair of ECOWAS.

“We believe that under his leadership, the private sector will be more involved in regional economic development in an enabling business environment where it is free for people to move with their goods and establish in any ECOWAS Member State,’’ he said.

Akadiri said with “growing challenges related to digital and personal data protection, large-scale scandals that continue to make the news and fuel a sense of impunity for those guilty of such abuses and illegalities’’ ECOWAS needed laws.

“The ECOWAS Member States are obliged to comply with the legal provisions put in place by Europe which is today considered as a model to be followed by many countries with regards to the protection of personal data.’’

He said globalisation and the intensification of the sharing of personal data required the reinforcement of the national protection of personal data and increase in international collaboration.

“We firmly believe that a State that wants to participate in globalisation, politically or economically, must offer the guarantee of personal data protection, especially where non- adherence implies repercussions for violation of the act which is within the context of globalisation,’’ Akadiri said.

He called for a robust national and regional legislative framework that reflected national values and an economic community concerning privacy as well as an independent governance structure with resources for implementing the law.

Akadiri also called for physical and technological infrastructure for the protection of personal data to prevent deliberate or accidental violations of privacy and technical expertise within the private data protection authorities.

He also said there was a need to monitor developments to discuss technological risks and collaboration among governments in cyber security. (NAN)

– Aug. 15, 2018 @ 13:25 GMT |