There is a projection that 69 million new jobs will be created and 83 million eliminated by 2027, as a result of the adoption of new technology and increased digital access. President Bola Tinubu has set a target of creating one million jobs from the digital ecosystem. The government would also explore ingenuous ways to boost revenue generation. LUCAS AJANAKU reports that leveraging the emerging data sector would serve as the talisman to achieve both.
One of the frightening key findings of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) The Future of Jobs Report 2023 is the employers across the world expect that 69 million new jobs will be created and 83 million eliminated by 2027, as a result of the adoption of new technology and increased digital access.
The report, which explored how jobs and skills would evolve over the next five years, showed that the 803 companies surveyed for the report, employers anticipate almost a quarter of jobs (23 per cent) to change in the next five years through growth of 10.2 per cent and a decline of 12.3 per cent.
Among the 673 million jobs corresponding to the dataset, this represents a net decrease of 14 million jobs, or two per cent of current employment.
But there is the new economy called data in tech parlance. The National Commissioner/CEO, Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Dr Vincent Olatunji, said data is the new oil, implying that it is going to be the cash cow of modern economies because it at the heart of the digital economy and it is responsible for the exponential growth of information and intelligence that produces what businesses use to deliver more customised and relevant experiences for consumers.
Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft are five largest firms on earth and they are major actors in the data economy with a combined market value of nearly $4 trillion in 2018.
According to WEF report, macro trends, including the green transition, environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards, localisation of supply chains; and tech advancements are the leading drivers of job growth while economic challenges, including high inflation, slower economic growth, supply shortages and inflation pose the greatest threat.
The fastest-growing jobs are forecast to be artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning specialists, sustainability specialists, business intelligence analysts and information security specialists.The largest absolute growth is expected in education, agriculture and digital commerce.
The report, however, noted that the fastest-growing roles are being driven by big data and AI, which are expected to create the highest number of future jobs, with 75 per cent of survey respondents expecting job growth in this area.
In Nigeria, however, the NPDC Act 2023 assented to by Tinubu will open the flood gate for jobs and revenue flow to the government.
Dr. Olatunji said there would be new jobs in data controllers (DCs), data processors (DPs), data protection officers (DPOs) and Data Compliance Officers (DPCOs) to manage the data of over 200 million Nigerians. These, he added, are new digital jobs.
He said the one million new digital jobs target of the President will be achieved and even surpassed as the Commission alone will create some 500,000 new jobs very soon.
According to the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the global data economy has grown exponentially to $16 trillion.
Like Olatunji, the NITDA Director-General, Kashifu Inuwa, the passage of NDPC Act 2023 is a watershed in the quest to create jobs and ensure that the Federal Government gets a sizeable bite of the huge global market of data. He spoke while inaugurating the Technical Working Committee (TWC) to drive the implementation of the National Data Strategy.
The Committee, which comprises experts, is expected to come up with a strategy that would foster a data driven culture in the country.
Inuwa said data is the oil of the digital economy across the globe, and Nigeria should maximise the opportunities in the sector to revive its ailing economy.
According to him, the global digital economy is valued at over $16trillion, adding that digitally transformed enterprises contributed $13.5 trillion to global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018.
He urged the committee to proffer solutions to challenges that border on the issues of data literacy and skill, data security, data sovereignty, open data, data infrastructure, data harmonisation, and data usability.
“Data economy was pegged at over $13trillion as at 2017. And the digital economy also is worth more than $16 trillion.
“Digitally transformed enterprises contributed $13.5 trillion to the global GDP in 2018, it is projected to contribute $53.5 trillion this year.
“That’s more than 50 per cent of the global GDP, and when you talk about the digital economy, data is the currency or is the oil of the digital economy. So to have this kind of data strategy today means Nigeria, we are ready for the digital economy. We are ready to create wealth and prosperity using the digital economy,” Inuwa said.
He explained that the strategy which was launched in March last year, needed to have a great technical working group for implementation for the betterment of the country.
He urged the Committee to do extensive work on the seven strategic pillars, which among others include data literacy and skills, data security, and data sovereignty for the benefit of the country.
Dr. Olatunji said the data protection ecosystem is a massive job creating avenue because it is an emerging industry. He said currently, there are job gaps of about 480,000 DPOs and DPCOs that the number of certified DPCOs in the country is less than 10,000.
He said the Commission will work with the National Assembly to ensure that certification will be carried out within the country because currently, certification is done offshore while payment is made in United States dollars which is not easy to source right now.
He said the Commission has come out with a-five pillar strategic roadmap which includes governance, capacity building, ecosystem and technology, funding and sustainability, cooperation and collaboration.
Cash flow prospects
Aside from the massive jobs that will be created to address social issues, there is also the aspect of boosting cash flow to the Federal Government.
The NDPC Act made provisions for punitive measures by way of fine imposition and committal to prison terms.
For instance, the PDF version of the Act sighted online stated penalties for erring Governing Council members and organisations. According to paragraph (b), a Council member shall not make profit in the course of discharging official duties while (e) forbade them from accepting any gift or advantage in whatever form or manner for anything done or likely to be done with respect to the responsibilities of the Council. Contravention (b), the Act stated shall attract N10,000,000 or imprisonment for a term not more than three years or both or in the case of a contravention of paragraph (d), a fine of at least N5,000,000 or imprisonment for a term not more than two years or both.
Similarly, breach by a data controller or processor shall attract financial sanction the “higher maximum amount” shall be greater of N10,000,000 and (b) two per cent of its annual gross revenue in the preceding year adding that (5) the “standard maximum amount” shall be the greater of (a) N2,000,000, and or (b) two per cent of its annual gross revenue in the preceding financial year.
Though the Commissioner stated that the Commission was not set up primarily for revenue generation, he said the Commission will use the carrot and stick approach by not hesitating to let the hammer fall on recalcitrant data controllers and processors.
In June, the Commission said it slammed N200 million fine on some companies found to have breached the data of their subjects. The companies have since remitted the fine to the coffers of the Federal Government.
He said the penalties were within a year for infractions committed by the institutions after thorough investigations by the Commission.
The National Commissioner, who did not reveal the identities of the banks and other institutions, explained that over 100 private sector institutions were investigated for varying degrees of personal data privacy breaches within the past one year.
He cited instances where citizens’ personal data were wrongly captured by banks, and the concerned persons could not access funds in their bank accounts due to infractions, while some customers had money wiped off their bank accounts due to personal data breaches.
Olatunji, who said a private university and some insurance companies, were being investigated for data breaches, warned that with the new law, data Processors and Controllers must have DPOs in their organisations.
He explained that compliance with the principal legislation as accented to by President Tinubu would not only boost the nation’s digital economy, but mainstream the country into global recognition and strengthen its standing in the global digital economy landscape.
Dr Olatunji also warned Chief Executive Officers of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government that they henceforth be prosecuted for data privacy breaches perpetrated by their institutions going by the provisions of the new law, noted that compliance with the data privacy law has, however, improved from four per cent to nine per cent by MDAs.
He said: “To all intents and purpose, we have crossed a significant threshold in the frontiers of the 4th Industrial Revolution; we are now at the decisive arena where duty of care and standard of care expected of everyone in the data processing ecosystem are laid down in a principal legislation: The Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023.
“It is in the certainty of our law that we can begin to put in place the building blocks of a sustainable Digital Economy.”
