The leaked National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) draft bill should be updated before they pass it in the parliament. It is severely deficient. Largely, everyone agrees that NITDA needs a new operating protocol as the one passed in 2007 is no more adequate. Nonetheless, we do hope that the parliament does the right thing by making sure that we do not stifle innovation in the process.
This bill as drafted is totally inadequate as it missed the most consequential challenge facing the technology sector in Nigeria: re-domiciliation of Nigerian tech startups out of Nigeria to the United States and UK. I understand the inclusion of the big fines of N3 million for individuals, and N30 million for corporations, for breaking the protocol, but on things which matter, this bill lacks value.
“Any person or body corporate who operates an information technology or digital economy service, product, or platform contrary to the provisions of this Act, commits an offense,” the agency said in the statement.
Individuals found guilty by the agency will be fined not less than N3 million (~$6,000) or placed into custody for a year or more. The bill states NITDA can also decide to charge such a person both the fine and imprisonment.
On the other hand, a fine of not less than N30 million (~$60,000) will be charged against corporate bodies. The ‘principal officers’ of the companies may also serve a prison sentence for two years or more.
The wealth of the future through digital technology companies are not being domiciled in Nigeria even though the operating entities and the domains of operations are Nigerians and Nigeria respectively. A NITDA bill that does not address that paralysis is deficient.
When these startups are about to raise capital, most times, they re-domicile out of Nigeria, partly to protect their intellectual properties because they cannot have confidence that Nigeria will protect them. Nigeria needs to work on that urgently and give the startups what will make them comfortable to remain fully Nigerians.
Yes, despite the current effervescence of entrepreneurial capitalism in Lagos, the fact remains that most of the wealth being built is not Nigerian. If GTBank, Zenith and Access Bank were not Nigerian in the early 1990s, our current stock exchange would have lost the banking leaders of today. So, it is critical that Nigeria focuses on what matters: how to make sure the wealth which technology is opening up in Nigeria remains Nigerian! Not addressing that is a big mistake in the draft bill.
The leaked bill seems new but critically it is an expired document: unborn tomorrow, but died yesterday. They need to rewrite it.
