Whereas Nigeria is yet to make public its stand, Ghana, as a signatory to the Council of Europe International Convention on cybercrime is currently preparing to accede to the Convention 108+ on Data protection.
This was revealed by Ghanaian Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia in a speech read on his behalf at the formal opening of the maiden Africa Regional Data Protection and Privacy Conference on the theme; “A Conference in Africa, by African Authorities, Focused on Africa.”
Business Hilights recalls that the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data was opened for signature on 28 January 1981 and it is still the only binding international treaty in this field.
According to Bawumia, Africa was striving to benchmark the international best practice standards of the Council of Europe Convention 108+ on Data Protection. He added that four African countries,Tunisia, Cape Vade, Senegal and Mauritius had acceded to the Convention, while Burkina Faso and Morocco had been invited to accede.
The Vice President while revealing that Ghana had an observer status and was preparing to accede to the Convention, averred that “the key requirements of the instrument regarding trans-border data processing, improving transparency and autonomy of supervisory authority remained a challenge in the sub-region”.
In his further submission, he argued that data protection regulations were one of the surest ways of ensuring protection for citizens, companies and countries against the intended or unintended consequences of data leakage such as theft and reputational damage.
He told Ghana News Agency (GNA) that “I therefore, encourage open frank, and transparency deliberations between all parties contributing to the shaping of policies that will be instrumental in securing our digital journey for the years to come.”
Bawumia added that Ghana was one of four African countries and one of two English speaking countries apart from Mauritius, which had signed the African Union’s Malabo Convention, stressing that signing these conventions were indicative of Ghana’s willingness to partner other nations on data protection issues.
While encouraging Nigeria and other African countries to do same in supporting data protection across the continent and standardized processes in their respective countries, Vice President Bawumia said the challenges in Africa with regard to data protection was also the result of inadequate expertise in data management and data protection.
He was quick to observe that African region had been reluctant in enacting random data protection laws and the establishment of supervisory authorities, saying less than 17 out of the 54 countries in the region had passed data protection laws.
Business Hilights Ghana Bureau chief reports that Ghana had passed the Data Protection Act, Act 843 to regulate the protection of personal data and is about to establish a data protection commission to implement the law and guarantee the data safety.
