The federal government on Sunday, January 28, announced that 17 major cases of data breaches and violations are currently being investigated by the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC).
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The national commissioner and chief executive officer of the commission, Vincent Olatunji disclosed at a media briefing at the Continental Hotels, Abuja, as part of activities to mark the 2024 edition of Data Protection Week.
Olatunji, however, did not disclose details of the probe.
The 2024 had the theme: “Take control of your data.”
Olatunji said the investigation spread across financial institutions (banks), technology, education, consulting, lottery and gaming services, and logistics services amongst others.
According to him over 1000 complaints were received from concerned individuals and corporate bodies about data infractions, while 50 of the cases have been verified, 17 major cases being probed.
He said the government would wedge the big stick concerned infractions committed against the individuals and corporate bodies to ensure the integrity of the data industry in Nigeria and for compliance with regulations in the sector.
The NDPC boss disclosed that there are over 220 million data subjects in Nigeria, and the country cannot afford to put them at risk because of the volume of activities in the sector.
He said: “With over 220 million data subjects, Nigeria has made significant progress in data exploration. However, unlike the crude oil mined onshore and offshore, data, its volume, value, veracity, velocity, and variety are derived through our activities as well as inactivity.
“This obviously poses a grave risk of abusive exploitation, assault to privacy and the dignity of the human person and, ultimately, it may put the entire nation in peril if we fail to regulate this value chain.
“Considering the impact on over 8 Billion people across the globe and the digital economy which is estimated at about 15% of the global GDP, the world cannot afford to let the data value chain grind down to an avoidable disaster.”
He said the National Data Protection Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan 2023-2027 (NDP-SRAP) comprises 5 pillars and 69 initiatives would implemented by the government in tandem with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
Olatunji also through remedial actions for completed cases, NDPC has generated over 400 Million Naira revenue for the government.
Olatunji added: “In addition, to foster compliance, we have increased the number of Data Protection Compliance Organizations from 103 to 163. As a result of this, annual audit filing has increased to over 2000 per annum while the cumulative revenue in the sector is estimated at 6.2 Billion and approximately 10,100 jobs have been created so far.
“It is also worthy of note that Nigeria has now been admitted to the Global Privacy Assembly made up of about 130 countries.”
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