A Review of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation 2019

The Nigeria Data Protection Regulation 2019 (“the Regulation”) was issued by the National Information Technology Development Agency (“the Agency”) on January 25, 2019, in realization of emerging data protection regulations within the international community geared towards security of lives and property and fostering the integrity of commerce and industry in the volatile data economy.

The world today has become a technological village where data and information are collated, processed and used by private individuals, corporate bodies and organizations in diverse transactions. The regulation was modelled after the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”); which has been described as “The most important change in data privacy regulation in 20 years”.

This brief shall highlight key features of the regulation and shall further discuss the necessary steps to be carried out by private and public entities in order to comply with the provisions of the regulation.