Data Controllers (businesses in Ghana) who have failed to register and pay the required fees to the Data Protection Commission (DPC) have been given a sigh of relief by the Ministry of Communications.
This is because, the Ministry has waived the amount and fines they were supposed to pay for the defaulting months, besides they would enjoy a six months’ amnesty period from October 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021 to enable them to mobilised resources to register and pay the requisite fees from the succeeding months.
The Minister for Communications, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, who announced this at the launch of a new Data Protection Registration and Compliance Software in Accra, said the relief was part of the government’s measures to lessen the impact of Covid -19 on businesses.
She added that Section 94 of Act 843, a law which regulates Data Protection in the country also empowers the Minster to extend the transitional period for Data Controllers.
However, she warned that entities which fail to regularise their operations with the DPC after the amnesty period would face the full rigor of the law.
She, therefore, encouraged all defaulting Data Controllers to endevour to register and pay the necessary fees after the amnesty period to avoid facing the brunt of the enforcement process of the law.
She tasked the DPC, the National Information Technology Agency (NITA), and the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), the Cyber Security Secretariat and other stakeholders to educate the public and the Data Controllers on the need to protect data in their custody to enable them comply with the law.
In a remark, the Executive Director of DPC, Ms. Patricia Adusei-Poku, said the new Data Protection Registration and Compliance Software has been designed to enhance transparency as well as build trust among the Commission, Data Controllers and Data Subjects (data itself) to significantly assist the digital transformation agenda of the government.
She said the new system has enhanced features such as user ability to update records, upload photos, videos and other documents adding that it is interactive and user friendly.
She added that the new software would enhance transparency and accountability of the management of data subjects, since the Data Controllers could assess their status of compliance.
“We see this software as a game changer because it will enable us to deliver and address some practicalities that are hindrances to us in delivering our mandate,” she said.
She said transparency in the management of data would boost the confidence of the individuals in the digital transformation agenda as they would know what their data were being used for, a situation which could encourage them to participate in the process willingly.
The Data Protection Commission (DPC) was established by Act 843 in 2012 to train data protection professionals, support entities in the public and private sector and keep them abreast with international best practices for protecting data and the privacy of individuals.
Juliet Etefe, ISD