By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay – Outreach Officer, MOICE

The Ministry of Information and Civic Education (MOIC) says it is sure to finalize the Data Protection Law this year.

MOIC’s minister, Chernor Bah, made the pronouncement at a meeting comprising Technical Working Group on Thursday.

He said the ministry is determined to finalize the law in line with the timeline President Julius Maada Bio has given. Minister Bah said the ministry will be building on existing work on the document.

“This has been in works for years, we are building on the effort of other ministries and other ministers done for years. The instruction from His Excellency is that we must get this done in the first half of this year, ideally the first quarter,” Minister Bah said.

“We are not starting from scratch, we have a draft, and a way forward, we have the experts too, representing a diverse set of stakeholders,” he added.

The Technical Working Group also comprises key government ministries, agencies, including civil society and media representatives. On Thursday, the working group agreed on key timelines to meet the three months target to pass the bill.

Minister Bah said:“The technical working group will provide the technical blue print and support the consultant that will now lead us home (towards the finalization of the bill).”

Minister Bah insisted that the thought around this bill is to make sure that the government does not have to set up a new agency to implement it, but to strengthen an existing institution like the Right to Access Information Commission to be able carry on with this mandate, in line with international best practice.

Civil society activist Abdul Fatorma who is a member of the Technical Working Group, said his organization, Campaign for Human Rights and Development International, is willing to commit its time to work with the government on this.

“We have been working on this law and the Cyber security law for years. We have a good relationship with the legislature and we had already started talks to get their support. We are happy to work with government on this,” he said.

Minister thanked partners that are working with the government on this; including partnersike Irish Aid, UNDP, EU and local institutions like the, Ministry of Communication, Technology and Innovation and

Ministry of Internal Affairs.