THE long-awaited data protection law is now around the corner as a bill to that effect is set for first reading in the Parliament meeting which kick off next week.
Minister for Information, Communication and Information Technology, Mr Nape Nnauye, revealed this yesterday in Dar es Salaam when officiating the opening of the ‘Connect to Connect Africa Summit.
Known as C2C Summit, it has brought together ICT stakeholders and government representatives from different African countries. The two-day conference which started on Wednesday focuses on discussing on how the Telecoms and ICT infrastructures in Africa can be supported to spread digital economy.
“Let me announce that we are now formerly going to table a data protection Bill for the first reading in the Parliament this month,” Mr Nnauye declared. He argued that the move is part of government’s efforts to come up with policies and laws that guarantee protection of privacy and personal data in digital platforms.
“The envisaged data protection law will be suitable for protecting private data on cyberspace and safeguarding the ethics of internet to make the internet governable, and considering that privacy is vital, this law will enable to promote privacy in internet users,” he said.
He stressed: “I want to assure you that the long awaited data protection Act is in the pipeline and its bill will be thoroughly discussed, incorporating opinions from different stakeholders,” Mr Nnauye told the summit.
He explained that the conference would highlight and entrench the value of progressive partnership and connecting Africa agenda.
The content and objective of the summit is clear reflection of the way in which the government and ICT stakeholders tackle challenges facing the country.
“We still agree that affordability and accessibility of communication was still a challenge in many African countries. It is from this fact that this conference is important, we are happy to host you,” he stated.
He challenged the participants to share their views on how to further improve connectivity across the Africa, to ensure the current and future connectivity address the need and aspirations of people and organizations that need the governments to support their activities.
“We have seen serious and rapid growth and investments by governments and ICT players in the fiber optic infrastructures connecting our countries to the rest of the world,” Mr Nnauye said.
However, he said the challenge remained how the countries could develop a new sense of communication that could take advantage of the rapid growth of bandwidth that are relevant to improving lives of people.
“We need to plan how to break down the international monopolistic barriers that could continue maintaining bandwidth costs at high level despite international availability,” he appealed.
On his part, Mr Taliki Maliki, Chief Executive Officer of the Extensia Limited, said the two day summit would have 20 sessions including as well as workshops, networking etc. Mr Maliki argued that for Tanzania to host this summit shows Tanzania’s role in digital transformation and ICT infrastructure.
Acting Managing Director of the Vodacom Tanzania, Ms Hilda Bujiku, said African countries have demonstrated keenness to adopt emerging technologies with telecoms like Vodacom leading the example to into digital ecosystem and bring about social-economic development.
She said the Vodacom has broadened its purpose which is to connect for a better future.
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