ID4D project will explore data protection techniques
Microsoft is pioneering a world first in Nigeria, privacy activist group Reclaim The Net has reported. The Nigeria Digital Identification for Development (ID4D) project will explore the areas of “data protection and capacity development”, according to a press release. Microsoft’s head of government affairs Nonye Ujam praised the Nigeria Digital ID4D project for progress in digital identity and pledged Microsoft’s readiness to help the project succeed.
“We are here to ensure that we support you to make things work very well. We are happy with the achievements Nigeria ID4D has recorded in such a short period,” said Ujam (pictured above).
“Microsoft Corporation has made a lot of investments and interventions in capacity development and cyber security. Beyond supporting governments in the area of capacity development, Microsoft meets their stakeholders where they are, hand-holds them and closes any identified gaps,” said Ujma. Just as ‘normal’ people are working hard to upgrade and update themselves, there are many ‘bad players’ working equally hard, and perhaps even harder, to update their skills and: “This is why we must take data protection and cyber security very seriously,” said Ujma.
The project co-ordinator for ID4D, Musa Solomon, said the publicly-funded Nigerian organisation is open to collaborating with “as many relevant stakeholders as possible” to make sure the project succeeds. Solomon added that the team is “working very hard” in the area of data protection.
“We are constrained by time, considering the fact that elections are close. We are battling to ensure that we balance the urgency with quality. It will not just be done quickly, but also done very well,” said Soloman, “Stakeholders engagement is an ongoing activity and Microsoft is our major stakeholder. We are ready and willing to work with [anyone].”
The Nigeria Digital Identification for Development (ID4D) project is jointly funded by the European Investment Bank, World Bank and the French Development Agency. However, activist group Reclaim The Net identified this as an area on which it members, people who are “tired of censorship, cancel culture, and the erosion of civil liberties”, need to be kept abreast of.