NITDA warns on hosting official data outside Nigeria – TheNigerialawyer

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA)
has warned government agencies from hosting public data on cybers
and clouds outside Nigeria.

In a statement signed by the agency’s director general, Isa
Ibrahim, NITDA said though government data is substantially hosted
locally, some agencies still host their data outside the
country.

“It should be noted that the government considers the data of
government as national resources which must be stored in Nigeria
and analysed within existing regulations for improvement of
governance and development of the country.”

The statement said violators of the guidelines would be
sanctioned in accordance with the agency’s enabling laws.

Full text of the statement below:

NITDA calls for strict compliance with guidelines on hosting
government data

The management of the National Information Technology
Development Agency (NITDA) would like to bring to the attention of
Federal Public Institutions, IT Service Providers to the Federal
Government and all data management firms doing business in Nigeria
on the need for strict compliance with Section 14 of the Regulatory
Guidelines for Nigerian Content Development in ICT. This section
provides a framework for repatriation and hosting of all Nigerian
government data within the country.

The Agency notes that prior to the operation and full
implementation of the Regulatory Guidelines for Nigerian Content
Development in ICT, a sizeable component of Government data was
hosted outside Nigeria. The situation has now changed as NITDA’s
compliance monitoring activity revealed that substantial data
assets of the Federal Government are already hosted in Nigeria.
These include the Government Integrated and Financial
ManagementInformation System (GIFMIS), Integrated Tax System
(ITAS), Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System
(IPPIS), and more recently the Treasury Single Account (TSA) has
been repatriated and is now hosted within the country in line with
the Guidelines.

We, however, wish to note that a small fraction of government
data is still hosted outside Nigeria without the approval of the
Agency. We understand that for some Federal Public Institutions,
consideration of cost and other technicalities may have affected
the full repatriation of government data. In these cases, NITDA is
to be notified promptly as Government has set measures in place to
commence sanctioning of violators in line with the provisions of
the NITDA Act 2007 and the other relevant laws in Nigeria. It
should be noted that the Government considers the data of
government as national resources which must be stored in Nigeria
and analyzed within existing regulations for improvement of
governance and development of the country.

Consequently, Data Centers and Cloud Service Providers operating
in Nigeria are hereby advised to comply with requirements of
information security management, global best practices, standards
and NITDA’s directives on quality customer service. Furthermore,
Data Hosting Service Providers are required to register their
competencies and capabilities in line with the requirements of the
Guidelines for Nigerian Content Development in ICT to ensure
adequate oversight and compliance with all necessary standards to
protect data of Nigerian citizens and Government.

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA)
is a Federal Government Agency established in April 2001 to
implement the Nigerian Information Technology Policy as well as
coordinate general IT development and regulation in the country.
Specifically, Section 6(a, b & c) of the Act mandates NITDA to
create a framework for the planning, research, development,
standardization, application, coordination, monitoring, evaluation
and regulation of Information Technology practices, activities and
systems in Nigeria; and render advisory services in all information
technology matters to the public and private sectors.

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