Integrating Privacy In Automated Registries: NDPC Sets AI Governance Benchmarks At CAC Annual Retreat

By Angeline Mgbele, Bureau Chief, Northern Nigeria

The National Commissioner/CEO of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Dr. Vincent Olatunji, was represented by officers from the IT and Cybersecurity Department of the Commission, Messrs Abubakar Bello Adamu and Abubakar Mahmud, at the 2026 Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) Annual Retreat.

Centred on the theme, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Scale: Advancing an Intelligent Corporate Registry for Efficient and Trusted Service Delivery,” the retreat explored practical approaches for integrating modern automated systems into public registries while ensuring robust data privacy, AI governance and cybersecurity frameworks are embedded into digital infrastructure.

During their jointly delivered presentation titled “Data Protection & AI Governance,” Messrs Adamu and Mahmud highlighted that traditional data protection principles under the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023 (NDP Act) must extend directly into AI training pipelines, making Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) mandatory for high-risk automated decision-making. They also emphasised a multi-layered governance model anchored by human-in-the-loop oversight, algorithmic auditability and transparent model controls to safeguard citizens’ rights.

Messrs Adamu and Mahmud reaffirmed that through continuous regulatory oversight, robust risk management frameworks and strategic inter-agency collaboration, the NDPC remained committed to building public trust and ensuring that technological adoption across public institutions was secure, inclusive and privacy-centric.