Microsoft engaging with Nigeria ID4D on capacity building, consulting on data protection

Microsoft says it will work with Nigeria’s ID4D agency to help build domestic capacity to advance the country’s data protection and digital identity ambitions, Vanguard reports.

Microsoft Government Affairs Lead Nonye Ujam visited Nigeria ID4D offices in Abuja this week to discuss work on data protection and digital identity in the country.

“Microsoft Corporation has made a lot of investments and interventions in capacity development and cyber security,” Ujam said, according to an announcement quoted by Vanguard. “Beyond supporting governments in the area of capacity development, Microsoft meets their stakeholders where they are, hand-hold and close identified gaps. As people are working hard to upgrade and update themselves, that is how hard the bad players are working to update their skills. This is why we must take data protection and cyber security very seriously.”

Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Project Coordinator Musa Odole Solomon said the agency is prepared to partner with “as many relevant stakeholders as possible to ensure that the project succeeds. We want the capacity of ecosystem implementing partners enhanced.”

The government is also engaging with stakeholders, including Microsoft, as it attempts to balance the urgency of passing data protection legislation with the need for the new law to be effective, Solomon says.

Microsoft has been invited to participate in the upcoming second leg of a Focus Group Discussion on the proposed Nigerian data protection law. That consultation is scheduled for September 1 in Lagos.

Article Topics

Africa  |  cybersecurity  |  data protection  |  digital identity  |  Identification for Development (ID4D)  |  legislation  |  Microsoft  |  Nigeria  |  Nigeria ID4D