The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has emphasized the need for over 500,000 data protection officers in the country. Vincent Olatunji, the National Commissioner of the NDPC, shared this insight during an interview with the media in Abuja on Monday.
The call for a significant number of data protection officers aligns with recent developments in education. On January 8, the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) instructed the unbundling of the HND Computer Science course in polytechnics and monotechnics. The course is now divided into four specialized areas: Artificial Intelligence, Networking and Cloud Computing, Software and Web Development, and Cybersecurity and Data Protection.
“I am glad that this is coming at this time because it is like giving credence to what we are doing and identifying the areas we need to focus on,” Olatunji said, while reacting to the NBTE directive.
“There is a deficit of manpower in these areas and in an area like data protection, we need minimum of 500,000 data protection officers.”