Protect Data. It’s the New Blood

CIO East Africa shall on 12th May 2020 at 2.00 PM EAT, host a free webinar themed, Accelerating The Data Protection Laws and Governance In Africa.

Speaking at the webinar will be John Omo, the Secretary-General of the African Telecommunications Union (ATU). Omo leads the Continental body entrusted with building consensus within African countries and coordinating African Common Proposals in international fora.

Aireni Omerri, one of Africa’s experienced information security practitioners, currently focusing on data protection and privacy will flank the ATU Secretary-General as a keynote speaker at the eagerly awaited session.

Having worked in three continents; Africa, America, and Europe across a number of industry verticals in roles encompassing; risk management, security awareness, security management, and security operations, Omerri has made an immense impact on the digital data space over the years.

As different economies in the African continent continue to present both risks and opportunities with regards data, its protection and privacy regulation in most, or even all countries is often viewed as less mature – particularly when compared to the EU’s General Data Protection (GDPR) regime.

In 2014, the African Union (AU) members adopted the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection (The Convention), in a declaration that set a strong objective for African action on cybersecurity and personal data protection, to deliver benefits to Africa.

The AUC then asked the Internet Society (ISOC) to jointly develop the Privacy and Personal Data Protection Guidelines for Africa. The Guidelines would then be created with contributions from regional and global privacy experts, including industry privacy specialists, academics, and civil society groups.

Individual African countries have since taken initiatives to adopt data protection laws and systems of governance, Kenya being the kid on the block, after president Uhuru Kenyatta signed The Data Protection Bill into Law, in 2019.

At a recent Africa Tech Summit Kigali in early 2020, a panel discussion on digital transformation in Africa, data was referred to as the new ‘blood’ rather than the ‘oil’ for Africa. It is then apparent that the world’s new most valuable resource right now is not oil but data.

With data being the new blood, it is no doubt that discussions around its protection and regulation are vital. Join the webinar to learn how to protect your personal data and just how valuable that data can be.