Vincent Olatunji, the national commissioner, Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), has disclosed that Nigeria has a deficit manpower of about 500,000 data protection officers across the country.
The national commissioner who made the disclosure during a chat with newsmen in Abuja Tuesday, noted that the commission has started working on an initiative that would enable private instructors, universities and polytechnics to train data protection officers.
“There is a deficit of manpower in these areas and in an area like data protection, we need a minimum of 500,000 data protection officers,” Olatunji said.
“The certified ones in the country are not more than 10,000, hence the dire need for experts in the area to bridge the skills gap.”
On January 8, the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), in a circular, directed heads of polytechnics and mono-technics to unbundle the higher national diploma (HND) in computer science into four specialised areas.
The areas are artificial intelligence, networking and cloud computing, software and web development, cyber security and data protection.
Olatunji said there is an urgent need to consider existing curriculums to reflect change in line with best practices for global competitiveness.
He said the move by NBTE is a step towards a necessary change in developing data protection officers for the service of the country.
“There is urgent need to bridged the gab and address the deficit of manpower in the sector,” he said.
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