Mr Mohammed Adoke, the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, has lauded a bill proposed by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) on personal information and data protection.

The minister gave the commendation on Thursday in Abuja at a stakeholders workshop organised by the commission on the draft Bill on Personal Information and Data Protection.

"Today's stakeholders' workshop on the draft Bill on Personal and Data Protection is long overdue considering the fact that our policies more than often, have not kept pace with the advances in technology," he said.

Adoke said the enabling act that created the commission provided for the establishment of the national identity database that would harmonise and integrate database in government agencies.

"The rational for this bill is a demonstration of the government in its resolve towards providing assured and sustainable identity infrastructure for her citizenry.

"It will in turn give the populace a decent robust and crime free environment to function in line with the provisions of the commission's Act," Adoke said.

He said the bill sought to establish rules that would govern the collection, use and disclosure of personal information in a manner that recognised the right of privacy of individuals.

"The bill clearly capture and underscore the essence of the proposed law in making and ensuring privacy of personal information of individuals and national identity database accessibility to government," Adoke said.