A Theoretical Framework for Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing Between Nigerian Government Agencies

Nigerian government agencies collect large volumes of citizen data in isolated silos, and enabling privacy-preserving data sharing between them would significantly improve public service delivery and policy effectiveness, yet a theoretical framework governing such sharing in Nigeria's specific legal and institutional context does not exist. This study developed an original theoretical framework for privacy-preserving data sharing between Nigerian government agencies. A constructive theory-building methodology was employed: systematic review of privacy-preserving computation literature (68 publications from 2019 to 2024), legal analysis of NDPA 2023, NPC enabling act, and relevant NITDA directives on inter-agency data sharing, structured interviews with 30 government data officers and privacy lawyers across eight agencies, and expert validation. The legal analysis identified three unresolved regulatory tensions: the absence of data sharing protocols in the NDPA that balance privacy and public interest, gaps in purpose limitation provisions for cross-agency analytical use, and absent minimum security standards for inter-agency data transmission. The original Privacy-Preserving Inter-Agency Data Sharing Framework (PPADS-Nigeria) proposes a four-layer architecture: legal authorisation layer (purpose specification and data sharing agreements), technical privacy layer (differential privacy, k-anonymisation, and secure multi-party computation options), governance layer (oversight committee, audit, and accountability), and remediation layer (data subject rights and breach response). Each layer includes implementation specifications and Nigerian regulatory compliance criteria. Expert review by 18 privacy technology and governance specialists confirmed the framework's original theoretical and practical contribution.

Keywords: privacy-preserving data sharing, government agencies, differential privacy, Nigeria, data governance framework