NDPC Flags 1,900 Firms for Data Protection Violations

The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has investigated more than 240 data breach cases and identified over 1,900 organizations for failing to comply with data protection regulations. Vincent Olatunji, the NDPC's National Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, made this announcement on Thursday in Abuja at a two-day workshop organized with the National Judicial Institute for judicial officers.

The NDPC has issued over 20 major remediation orders to enhance compliance and has registered more than 41,000 data controllers and processors in the last three years, receiving over 8,000 compliance audit returns. The commission has licensed 367 data protection compliance organizations and issued the General Application and Implementation Directive under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, which has been translated into Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa.

Olatunji highlighted the judiciary's role in resolving disputes from the commission's enforcement activities and called for alignment with international data protection standards. He noted that Nigeria's data protection ecosystem has created over 27,000 jobs and trained numerous data protection officers.