An Act to make public records and information more freely available, provide for public access to public records and information, protect public records and information to the extent consistent with the public interest and the protection of personal privacy, protect serving public officers from adverse consequences of disclosing certain kinds of official information without authorization and establish procedures for the achievement of those purposes.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) encourages accountability through transparency – considered to be vital to the health and success of a democracy. In Nigeria, each federal agency is responsible for processing FOIA requests for the records it holds and for disclosing records unless they are subject to an exemption. Employees of federal agencies need to be prepared to handle FOIA requests.

This course provides an overview of the FOIA and how to meet obligations for processing FOIA requests, while also encouraging employees to become familiar with the guidelines and resources held by their agency's FOIA Office.

For Whom

Freedom of Information Officers, Records Management Officers, Archivists, Data Protection Officers, Information Security Managers, Compliance Officers, Public and Private Sector Lawyers, Public Authorities‚ Legal Representatives, and others who find the course relevant.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the program, Participants will be able to:

• Identify the purpose and objectives of the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act
• Apply best practices to keep personal and corporate information private
• Determine the treatment of undisclosed records based on exemptions and exceptions
• Apply procedural requirements to respond to requests for information and challenging cases
• Determine the proper procedures for preparing records for release
• Determine how and when to charge fees for PA and FOIA requests
• Process a request from receipt to the release of the record