The National Commissioner of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Vincent Olatunji, has said Nigeria has emerged as a global reference point in data protection because it has built a functional data protection ecosystem.
Olatunji stated this at a cross-regional data protection peer exchange workshop in Abuja on Monday.
Nigeria is hosting nine countries in the first phase of a week-long Data Protection Cross-Regional Peer Exchange Visit to be held from May 4 to May 5, 2026 in Abuja.
The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ethiopia, Burundi, Somalia, Malawi, Zambia, and Kenya are being hosted as part of the continental initiative, with Nigeria hosting the first segment, while Kenya will host the concluding phase.
The event was organised in partnership with the World Bank and Smart Africa, bringing together regulators from across East and West Africa. He linked the achievement to the country’s rapid progress in building a functional data protection ecosystem.
The NDPC boss said that effective implementation still remains a challenge in Africa despite significant growth in data protection laws. He identified low awareness, weak institutional capacity and limited collaboration as key obstacles to effective enforcement.
