The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has stressed the need to create at least 500,000 data protection officer roles in the country.
Vincent Olatunji, National Commissioner of the NDPC, disclosed this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
The call for an increased number of data protection officers aligns with the National Board for Technical Education’s directive to unbundle the Higher National Diploma (HND) Computer Science course into four specialized areas.
These areas include Artificial Intelligence, Networking and Cloud Computing, Software and Web Development, and Cybersecurity and Data Protection.
Olatunji expressed his satisfaction with the directive, emphasizing the existing manpower deficit in these specialized areas.
He highlighted the significance of focusing on the areas and mentioned that, especially in data protection, there is a need for a minimum of 500,000 data protection officers to meet the growing demands of the sector.
“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.
