Nigeria’s Federal Government has commenced probe of online banks over their alleged breaches of customers’ data privacy. The Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, disclosed this in Abuja, while addressing journalists ahead of the National Privacy Week 2022.

He stated further that the agency is working with relevant stakeholders to ensure that the challenge is addressed as NITDA’s mandate does not govern everything.

The CBN is accountable for financial services while there is another commission in charge of the general complaints, but NITDA plays a critical role because of the breach of data privacy, he added.

The Director-General expressed that some of the online banks have been sanctioned, while the Nigerian police are investigating many of them, noting that the agency is working assiduously to address the challenge.

Following the complaints of data invasion by Nigerians against lending platforms, a fine of N10m was imposed by NITDA on Soko Loan for a data breach in August 2021.

However, NITDA had partnered with the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission in November 2021, to curb the increasing rate of breaches in data privacy abuse by lending platforms.

While speaking on the development, a tech policy analyst at Tech Hive Advisory Limited, Tolulope Ogundele, stated that the challenge has gone beyond just working or collaborating with other agencies. She, therefore, urged the Federal Government to adopt a multi-stakeholder approach and seek the involvement of the private sector in order to understand the lending sector.

Similarly, an ICT expert and Senior Partner at e86 Limited, Olugbenga Odeyemi, urged the government to strengthen privacy and data use laws, as well as protect lending platforms from serial loan defaulters.

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