 Welcome to Fiji Symposium 2019 in Cairo, Egypt, where I'm very pleased to be joining the studio today by Patricia Aduse Poku, who is Commissioner and Executive Director of the Data Protection Commission in Ghana. Welcome to the studio. Thank you. Now I'd like to start off by talking a little bit about data privacy and it's a subject which is very much in people's minds and certainly has been discussed here as well. I wanted to ask you what are the main data privacy issues in digital financial services and how is Ghana addressing those issues? So the issues that face Ghana are also the global challenges that are being addressed so it's not unique to Ghana. I'd like to make that point. But the issues around transparency at the point of collecting the data, processing of the data in machine learning and artificial intelligence, there are implications around high volume data collection and processing beyond the borders of one country, which then takes out the whole privacy requirement for retention, which is another key area. We also have an area around the consent of the individual, how that is managed in the whole process of managing big data and profiling of the individual based on other areas of data collected on them and aggregated together. How do we enable the voice of the individual in that whole processing of their data and also give them that privacy which in Ghana as in several other jurisdictions is a fundamental human right. So we have a regulator's dilemma in being an enabler of the use of new technology and technological advancement and also having to protect the rights of the individual. Now I know that prior to this position you had another position as well obviously. You've got a good global perspective. I just wanted to find out in terms of regulations perhaps is enough being done to protect data privacy? So we touched on in just one of the sessions we've sat in today around the issues that are specific to Africa as a region as compared to the global north western states where the customers are more savvy, more assertive, very willing to exercise their rights as against the African culture of not wanting to complain, having a high language barrier, problem literacy issues and the unaddled population that is not technically quite active. And so there are specific issues that are African compared to the other areas of the world which we are battling with. Also another critical area of challenge is the skills deficit that is obviously a global problem but more acute here because the whole concept of data protection is new. And so having the skilled professionals with enough knowledge and experience to deliver and enforce the requirements of legislation which is not very existing in many African regions also is a big problem. And are governments doing enough to protect people's data privacy? So when we talk generally governments in Africa the percentage of governments that have actually taken that proactive step to pass the law are less than 20 of the 55 African countries and the African Union is leading, working with us, the established commissions in discussions as to how to improve the enactment of laws in Africa also to also standardize as the laws come up the requirements. And finally I mean you've taken the time to come here and I wanted to ask you what's the benefit of attending this event, this symposium and how do you think that it's going to make a difference? It's good because there's mutual learning between myself as a regulator listening to the concerns and the challenges faced by the service providers here as you give back as you give them knowledge of the regulators perspective and the expectations of the industry sectors. And then you take back the learnings based on their peculiar, you know, perceptions and understandings and the challenges it presents to them as service providers back. I've learned quite a lot listening to colleagues in the financial sector today and part of it is a pleasant understanding that there's a lot being done, a lot of proactive work around the choice of technology, the implementation of new technology, design of systems and the way the service providers are proactively trying to address the issue of privacy and also the other area where the whole doubt around whether this is really something that we should be enforcing and how it's limiting the ability to, you know, use new technology and aggregated data to deliver best service to consumers and whether the whole decision around protection of consumers should be left to service providers especially typically in the African region where there are so many challenges in managing the user expectations so it's great insights. Well these conversations I'm sure we'll be carrying on a lot into the future but thank you so much for joining us in the studio today and we hope to catch up with you again soon. Thank you.