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Before the Data Protection Bill was signed, the pressure was getting wersa and wersa in Buchi’s relationship, and the actual bone of contention was a 24 inches frontal bone straight hair Ada so badly desired as a birthday gift from her boyfriend, Buchi. After enduring months of Ada’s nagging, contrary to his terms of engagement at his place of work, Buchi borrowed the sum of N385,000 from an online loan app to purchase the specified bone straight hair. (The things we do for love; GOD, when?) In a frenzy to buy the hair, he failed to realise that which just one click, he had given the loan app access to all his data, phone contacts and sensitive bank details!
The loan sum was to be paid within six months, and Buchi did not meet up. Worse still, he fell into depression after he learnt from the grapevine that Ada had snuck out of the country with her bone-straight hair as a dependent to Femi. As customary of loan apps, the real idans, they called all his reachable contacts and exposed the loan transaction, which caused him further complications at work. Buchi may not have had control over Ada’s actions towards him. He sure had control over how he disclosed his data, and he learnt the hard way to always read through the privacy policy of any service provider before divulging precious information.
Data protection is essential as it cuts across individuals and businesses. As you subscribe to products and services, make payments online by punching in your card details, or partake in a market survey initiated by companies aiming at serving their prospective customers better, data is being given out, received, stored and processed. It then behoves the government to implement enactments and resulting penalties to protect personal data and ensure it is not misused or abused.
The year 2023 birthed the Data Protection Bill, which was signed into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Itemised below are a few juicy nuggets extracted from the Act:
The main objective of the Data Protection Bill is to provide a holistic legal framework for the protection of personal information.
The Act is applied to data, data subjects and data processors in the following instances, among a few others-
Where the Processing of data is done within Nigeria
Where the data in question are owned by Nigerians, though the data processor/collectors are not domiciled in Nigeria
Where the data processors/collectors are domiciled in Nigeria.
The Data Protection Bill also brings to life the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, which is the body corporate of data protection in Nigeria. If anyone has a grievance, a petition or any action as it relates to data matters, the same would be forwarded to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission; the commission is a separate legal entity; therefore, it can sue persons or fellow legal entities in Court and can equally be sued to Court. The commission’s primary aim is to regulate the processing of personal information and other related matters.
The commission possesses the power to perform the following actions, among several others:
Conduct investigations where there is an alleged violation of the Act by a data controller or processor.
Impose penalties in respect of any violations
Acquire assets, sell, let, lease or dispose of any of its property.
The Data Protection Bill shall have a Governing Council headed by a chairman, who is expected to be a retired judge of Nigeria. The members of the governing Council are all part-time members and are entitled to allowances, except the National Commissioner.
The Act also saddles the data controller/data processor with the following responsibilities, among several others:
To ensure personal data is processed in a fair, lawful and transparent manner
To ensure the data collated is up to date and not misleading.
To ensure data processing is done in a manner that ensures appropriate security and protection against unauthorised or unlawful access or any other form of data breach.
Among other responsibilities specified in the Data Protection Bill 2023, the data controller or processor owes a duty of care to the data subject in respect of data processing and shall demonstrate accountability in respect of the principles contained in the Act.
The Data Subject possesses the following rights:
To ascertain from the data controller the purpose of collating their data, the category of data being obtained, to whom their data would be disclosed, and the possible period to withdraw consent to access their personal data. The data controller must ensure that it is as easy for the data subject to withdraw consent as it was to give such consent.
The exception to the above is where the data controller demonstrates a reason not to, due to public interest, crime investigation or any other legitimate ground which relates to the fundamental rights and freedoms as stipulated in Nigeria’s Constitution.
The Data Protection Bill 2023 is a giant stride towards safeguarding the privacy and security of personal data in Nigeria. Just like every other innovation, there may be some challenges and concerns that may arise during the execution of the Bill; It is, however, quite clear that the Bill’s overall impact is likely to be positive, benefiting individuals, organisations and Nigeria as a whole.
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