Data

By Muhammad Abubakar

The Federal Government has removed the 5% excise duty on telecommunications services in Nigeria.

The tax, introduced under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, was to be applied on both voice and data services. It drew strong opposition from telecom operators and consumer groups.

Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Aminu Maida, said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ordered its removal during discussions on the recently passed Finance Act.

The decision is expected to provide relief to over 171 million active telecom subscribers, who have also faced a 50 per cent tariff increase earlier this year.

By Muhamad Mikail

In today’s interconnected and accountability-driven environment, a stakeholder is anyone who has an interest in or influence over an organisation, ranging from employees, customers, investors, and regulators to local communities and advocacy groups. Stakeholder engagement is a strategic process that involves informing, consulting, collaborating with, and responding to these groups to ensure transparency, secure buy-in, manage risks, and incorporate feedback into project planning and execution. According to the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2), stakeholders are those who are “affected by or can affect the outcome of a decision or project,” making their inclusion vital to successful outcomes.

A 2020 McKinsey & Company report found that organisations that engage stakeholders meaningfully tend to perform better across both financial and social metrics, and are 2.3 times more likely to outperform their peers. The World Bank now requires stakeholder engagement in all funded projects, and frameworks like the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) emphasise stakeholder inclusiveness as a core principle of sustainable reporting. In this context, stakeholder engagement is no longer a courtesy—it is a strategic imperative for organisations seeking long-term relevance, impact, and resilience.

Since it became effective in December 2021, the Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Project has sought to have a proactive and open relationship with its stakeholders, across public and private institutions, ministries, departments and agencies, the media, Front End Enrolment Partners, Non-governmental organisations, Civil Society Organisations, disability clusters and women’s forums. This consistent stakeholder engagement is viewed as being fundamental to the core development objective of the Project, which is “to increase the number of persons with a national identity number issued by a robust and inclusive foundational ID system that guarantees their access to services”. This is to ensure the provision of a verifiable means of identification (NIN) for all Nigerians and legal residents of Nigeria. 

Thus far, the Project has successfully organised stakeholder consultation workshops annually for critical stakeholders in the ID sector across Nigeria. Importantly, these consultations elicited feedback and synergy on areas of collaboration, building on established networks and structures across communities and ward levels. Reports of these consultation workshops have been published in three national dailies, which serve as a means of reporting back to stakeholders on the progress of implementing their recommendations and suggestions. 

It is worthy of immense applause that the Project, through the Ecosystem Coordination Strategic Unit, (ECSU) in manner yet to be replicated in the country and anywhere else in the world supported the then Nigeria Data Protection Bureau headed by Dr Vincent Olatunji, devised a master stroke strategy of engaging critical stakeholders in the digital economy ecosystem, data protection thought-leaders, cybersecurity experts, policy makers, technocrats, NGOs, CSOs, development partners and even politicians in the drive to the drafting, passage of the data protection bill and eventual assent by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the 12^th of June 2023 all under one year. This eventually gave rise to what is now known as the Nigeria Data Protection (NDP) Act of 2023, which led to the establishment of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission. 

Furthermore, the Project Coordinator of the Project Implementation Unit, Mrs Tito Ejenavi said in a speech delivered at the opening of training for over 7,157 revalidated Front End Enrolment Partners and agents, that the PIU is part and parcel of  NIMC and has supported the National Identity Management Commission in entering several partnerships that have benefited underserved communities, disability clusters and several women forums including taking enrolment to their communities, test of accountability scorecards and assignment of special enrolment agents to enrol persons with disability, drafting and validation of disability policy, inclusion strategies, incentivisation of enrolment partners using the business model and billing solution, aided by the geo-spatial mapping of all communities and cities in Nigeria.  The NIMC is also collaborating with the National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office to enrol the poorest of the poor into the National Social Register and validate the Social Register using the NIN. 

As a result of this engagement and numerous other initiatives, NIN enrolment figures and data have improved by millions each month. From January 2022 when enrolment for the NIN stood at seventy-two million, seven hundred thousand, three hundred and sixty (72, 700, 360) and May 2025, enrolment currently stands at one hundred and nineteen million, six hundred and twenty-three thousand, two hundred and twenty-nine, a whopping addition of forty-six million, nine hundred and ninety-two thousand, eight hundred and sixty-nine. This accounts for a 48.80% increase in the number of people enrolled and issued a National Identification Number, NIN. 

Establishing and maintaining good relationships requires a long-term horizon, involving taking varied steps and making different, far-reaching decisions. The NIMC through the Project Implementation Unit, PIU of the NDID4D Project have invested heavily and strategically in the training and retraining of grievance redress representatives across the 36 states of Nigeria who across all NIMC centres are to serve as the first points of contact for any aggrieved enrolee, enrolment agent or residents of the host communities especially when such situation is tied to enrolment for the NIN or any other services that the NIMC currently offers.  

Concerted Efforts are being made through CSOs and women’s forums, such as the Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria (FOMWAN), to personalise relationships with communities across the federation. This is achieved by building on their already established structures and networks, and working through their employees to create links with local communities and drive inclusion. Grievance redress has taken centre stage with the establishment and expansion of a NIMC 24/7 toll-free line to address grievances from anywhere in the country. The DG/CEO of NIMC, Engr. Abisoye Coker Odusote has been quoted in several official events stating that NIMC takes grievances seriously and will address them in a reliable and timely manner. 

It is worth noting that strategic stakeholder engagement is a key strategy for governments, organisations, and community groups in developing coherent policies and projects. It is our sincere hope that many more sustainable and people-centred reforms will be pursued in the drive to reposition our digital identity ecosystem, thereby helping to enhance the growth of our digital economy.  I therefore call on the National Assembly to expedite the passage of the amendments to the NIMC Act of 2025, as forward-thinking legal reforms like the NIMC Act amendment hold the key to unlocking the limitless benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Muhammad Mikail is a Communications Professional and writes from Abuja. He can be reached via muhammadnmikail.mm@gmail.com.

By Sunusi Abubakar Birnin Kudu

Accounting, traditionally seen as the process of recording, summarising, analysing, and reporting financial transactions about individuals, businesses, or other organisations, is currently facing a transformative shift due to technological advancements, especially in Artificial intelligence. AI-powered accounting software has taken over many routine tasks performed by accountants. 

AI now automates core accounting tasks such as categorisation, data entry, and reconciliation. These tools now efficiently deliver real-time financial statements and modern finance metrics. Thus, the shift creates the fear of job displacement and professional irrelevance among accounting students and accountants. This calls for accountants to adapt to those changes and avoid being irrelevant. A study published by Forbes supports these concerns, noting that among the factors that led over $300,000 accountants and auditors to leave their jobs between 2019 and 2021 is a fear of being replaced by automation. 

However, this assertion has a contrary narrative. A recent survey by an automation platform called DataSnipper indicates that auditing/accounting job vacancies rose by 25% in 2024. This was attributed to the high demand for accounting personnel, the retirement of those in practice, and the role of AI in cutting down auditors’ repetitive work. The survey also indicates that 83% of the auditors in the world tend to stay in companies with AI initiatives. 

These findings illustrate a key truth. AI has posed both threats and opportunities to accountants and the accounting profession. However, the determining factor lies in how accountants respond to them. 

Although AI can perform many accounting functions that accountants carry out, it can’t replace the human judgment required to weigh up different variables and make an informed decision. For this reason, accountants might have a respite. However, they need to evolve from being financial reporters to becoming strategic advisors, leveraging financial data analytics (DA) to interpret data, advise their clients, and enhance organisational performance.

Financial data analytics in accounting involves making critical financial decisions for an organisation. It enables accountants to keep track of the overall organisation’s functions. Accountants with DA knowledge can help organisations to make informed decisions. They can assist organisations in maintaining records, budgeting and financial forecasting, and setting targets and projections with high accuracy.

An accountant can use DA to guide company-employee relations by establishing key performance indicators to analyse employees’ overall financial impact on the company. Through AI-driven analytic tools like Zoho and Qlik, accountants can simplify complex financial circumstances into useful information. 

Furthermore, in tax consultancy and advisory services, accountants can use financial data analytics to guide clients through tax planning and compliance. They can also liaise with revenue agencies for efficient revenue collection. Data analytics tools can be harnessed by accountants based on the nature and circumstances of the clients. 

Accountants who transition from ordinary financial data processing to advanced financial data interpretation tend to be more relevant to the accounting profession. Adopting data analytics helps accountants stay relevant in a competitive labour market and improves their professionalism and expertise. 

The accounting profession is no longer limited to classification, summarisation, and reporting. It requires accurate data analysis and informed decisions. AI is an opportunity for accountants, not a deterrent. Accountants shouldn’t resist this development but rather adapt it, harness it, and grow. This is the only way to redefine their relevance in an AI-driven era.

Sunusi Abubakar (ACA in view) wrote this from Arawa B. Akko Local Government, Gombe State.

By Muhammad Sulaiman Abdullahi

The Kano State Government is set to begin engaging volunteer ad-hoc data collectors across the state’s 484 wards as part of efforts to establish a comprehensive multisectoral data bank and dashboard. The initiative, which is nearing 70 per centcompletion, has been approved by the Executive Governor, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf.

According to the State Statistician-General, Dr. Aliyu Isa Aliyu, the volunteers, who must be residents of their respective wards, will be trained by the State Bureau of Statistics on the use of digital data collection tools. 

Dr Aliyu added that their responsibilities will include collecting demographic data such as births, deaths, maternal and child mortality rates from ward head registers and graveyards, as well as statistics on education, healthcare, security, and access to water and electricity.

Dr. Aliyu emphasised the importance of collaboration between volunteers, ward heads, and community stakeholders to collect accurate and timely data. He added that school teachers and health workers are strongly encouraged to apply once the application portal is made public.

“This is a collective responsibility and an opportunity for all of us who are committed to supporting our state,” he said. “Together, we shall make Kano great.”

By Uzair Adam

MTN Nigeria has increased its data tariffs following the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) approval of a tariff adjustment for telecommunications companies.

The company confirmed the price hike in a response shared on its X (formerly Twitter) account, stating that the adjustment was made to improve services.

Reuben Mouka, NCC’s spokesperson, explained that the regulatory body approved a maximum increase of 50% on current tariffs, despite some operators requesting over 100%.

However, MTN’s latest pricing structure reflects a much steeper increase. For instance, the 15GB data bundle, previously priced at N2,000, now costs N6,000, marking a 200% rise.

Similarly, the 1.5TB plan has jumped from N150,000 to N240,000. Other data plans, including the 100GB and 600GB bundles, have also seen significant hikes.

The development has sparked outrage among subscribers, many of whom have taken to social media to express frustration over the rising cost of internet access amid economic hardships.

Ishaka Mohammed

In a recent report by DAILY NIGERIAN, a reporter called Umar Audu worked under cover and obtained a degree certificate from Cotonou in Benin Republic within six weeks instead of four years, and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) mobilised him for the mandatory national service. 

Although the report contains a lot of disturbing revelations, only one thing surprises me. The said Umar Audu is a genuine graduate in mass communication who participated in the NYSC scheme from 2018 to 2019. Yet, the agency mobilised him again in 2023 and captured his fingerprints without catching him for multiple registrations. It’s scary to realise such poor data management in a scheme which, since its creation, has been headed mostly by high-ranking military officers.

Concerned Nigerians have discussed the benefits of data harmonisation and the effects of its neglect. One of the numerous consequences of scattered data in Nigeria is the presence of people receiving multiple salaries from government ministries, agencies or departments. This is widespread in the same country where millions of citizens, regardless of their qualifications, battle with unemployment, hence suffering from poverty and hunger. With a standard database management system, the suffering of Nigerians can be reduced significantly. 

I sometimes wish that Nigeria would be a country with mandatory registration of children at birth. I dream of a country where every birth certificate would contain the bearer’s national identification number (NIN), which would be the chief of the eligibility criteria for free or affordable basic and secondary education, SIM registration, admission to tertiary institutions, employment, visa or passport application, etc.

I imagine a nation with a central database management system which makes everybody’s identification number and fingerprints verifiable. My ideal country is where every government ministry, agency or department can verify anyone’s date of birth, level of education, employment history, etc., using the person’s fingerprints. With all these in place, it would be impossible for one to simply outsmart a federal government agency just like Umar Audu did.

By the way, I commend everyone involved in that investigation. Stories of illegal Cotonou degrees can no longer be called baseless rumours. I’ve heard of similar racketeering in Kogi State but have yet to obtain any tangible proof.

By Muhammad Mikail

‘The amount of data being generated today is enormous; as such, it has become necessary to have a full-fledged data protection law to ensure confidentiality and privacy of the data’ – Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami

In today’s digital world, data is key to the extent that some scholars have termed ‘data as the new oil’. This speaks to the huge revenue potential data has for every country serious about growing its digital economy. Nigeria is certainly one. This data is in the form of personal information, which is frequently collected, stored, and shared by businesses, governments, and individuals.

According to Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, the Hon Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, who spoke at the recently held maiden edition of the ‘Digital Economy Regional Conference’ in Abuja with the theme: Positioning West Africa’s Digital Economy for the Future, “In the fourth industrial revolution, data is key. In 48 hours, the quantity of data generated globally is equal to the quantity of data that was generated within a period of 5000 years.”

However, without clear regulations to govern the use of such data, individuals and entities are left vulnerable to privacy violations such as data breaches, identity theft, and other forms of abuse. Today, it is a global best practice to have a data protection law in place. Otherwise, nations find it difficult to attract so many interventions beneficial to their countries. A data-secured environment is an investment wonderland.

The above explains why many development partners, international financial institutions, critical stakeholders in the digital economy space and even potential investors today have continued to ask questions as to why Nigeria does not have a data protection law in place. Having such a law in place will align the country with the scores of others around the globe and make Nigeria a global player. Put differently, the costs of a lack of a proper data protection law are enormous.

To address this issue, the Federal Government of Nigeria established the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB) in 2022 as the regulatory institution responsible for ensuring that people’s personal information is kept private and safe when used for ‘digital things.’ Furthermore, in January 2023, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the Nigeria Data Protection Bill presented by the Hon Minister of Communication and Digital Economy for transmission to the National Assembly for consideration.

The draft data protection Bill was sent to the National Assembly by the President in separate letters addressed to the leadership of the National Assembly and read on the floor of both chambers on Tuesday, the 4^th of April, 2023. The Bill has gone through the first and second readings and sent to the ‘Committee of Whole’ in the National Assembly to harmonise positions from both chambers. This Bill will provide a legal framework for the protection of personal information, safeguard people’s basic rights and freedoms, and establish a data protection commission for the regulation of the processing of personal information and data when passed into law.

The eight Assembly previously passed the Draft Data Protection Bill, but President Muhammadu Buhari declined assent. This was due to concerns raised by stakeholders on some identified areas and clauses in the Bill. So far, Nigeria Data Protection, in collaboration with the Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Project, NDID4D, has been working with critical stakeholders, captains of industries and policymakers on addressing those concerns and perfecting the bill.

Recently, a validation workshop was held to present the draft bill to stakeholders for their buy-in, comments, criticism, and suggestions to improve the bill.  Senator Ibrahim Hossein, and Rt. Hon Lado Suleja, both Chairman Senate and House Committee on ICT and Cybersecurity, respectively, have, on numerous outings, conveyed the support and willingness of the National Assembly to diligently work on the bill to ensure speedy passage and eventual assent by the President.

‘Data Protection is a constitutional right in Nigeria’, is an oft-quoted statement of Prof. Pantami, the communications minister, as Section 37 of the 1999 constitution as amended provides that: “The privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic communications is hereby guaranteed and protected.” In the same vein, the core rights of data subjects under the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation provide a data subject have a right to be informed, the right of access, the right to object, the right to data portability, the right to erasure, right to restriction of processing, rights to rectification and rights regarding automated decision making.

Thus, data protection law is urgently needed in Nigeria as citizens have had one form of data or the other compromised without the ease of recovery, leading to huge financial losses, reputational damage, revenue losses, and other forms of abuse. This is pertinent, especially with the growing rate of identity theft, cyberstalking, data mining, theft, internet fraud and increasing reported cases of abuse of financial information by financial institutions, mobile service providers and telecom companies, unregulated loan credit companies and so on.

The current National Assembly needs to pass the data protection bill for President Buhari to assent to it before May 29^th, 2023. This will provide an additional layer of protection for the nation’s digital identity ecosystem and, in no small measure, safeguard the Nation’s fast-growing digital economy, boost investor’s confidence, attract foreign direct investment, improve our GDP, and ensure robust protection and safeguarding of personal information from being stolen and misused for fraudulent purposes, reducing the incidence of identity theft and fraud as well as serve as a buffer for citizens’ personal data privacy.

Data is critical to the survival of every nation’s economy, particularly in today’s digitised global home. It is on record that Nigeria is the first African country to join the developed countries in celebrating international data privacy day. This demonstrates the Nation’s drive and willingness to take its pride of place as a leading African digital economy hub amongst the comity of nations.

The data protection law is not in any way meant to punish our citizens but rather to create awareness so that we will all be data compliant. We are urged to comply. Today, because of awareness creation, collaboration amongst digital economy ecosystem partners, critical stakeholders in the data sphere, reaching out to institutions, sanctions, and interrogating others, the data protection and privacy compliance rate is on a steady increase.

Additionally, businesses and organisations will be held accountable for any data breaches or privacy violations, which will encourage them to take data protection seriously and implement proper measures to protect personal data.

The current Assembly should take due credit and ensure the speedy passage of this lofty bill, and President Buhari should quickly assent to it for the good of posterity. The passage of a comprehensive data protection law in Nigeria is urgent and should not be delayed further.

Muhammad Mikail writes from Abuja, Nigeria and can be reached via muhammadnmikail.mm@gmail.com.