Nigerian Government Investigates GTBank, Zenith Bank Over Data Privacy Violation

Two Nigeria Banks, GTBank and Zenith Bank are being investigated by the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau over allegations of data breach.

Checks showed that allegations of unlawful disclosure of banking records to a third party and unlawful access and processing of personal data triggered the investigations.

According to the directive of the National Commissioner and CEO, NDPB, Dr. Vincent Olatunji, the investigation covers the data governance practice of the banks in all their branches in Nigeria and extends to all third parties carrying out data processing activities.

The Bureau noted with concern in a statement made available to TechTV Network on Monday that many data privacy and protection regulations and best practices are hardly implemented down the organizational strata of major data controllers in Nigeria.

Similarly, the Bureau enjoined organizations to heed the Federal Government circulars and general compliance notice directing them to send the names of their Data Protection Officers/Contacts to the Bureau.

“There are reports by Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) which indicated that within 9 months of 2020, fraudsters attempted 46,126 attacks and were successful on 41,979 occasions representing 91% of the time!

“This level of vulnerability to data breach is unacceptable and it can only be addressed through foolproof data security and data privacy measures by data controllers/data processors in the industry,” the NDPB said in the statement signed by its Head, Legal Enforcement and Regulation, Babatunde Bamigboye.

The National Commissioner enjoined all financial institutions to emulate the example of the Central Bank of Nigeria in compliance with the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) 2019 and in creating a robust data governance system.

The National Privacy Week is an opportunity for all organizations to set their records straight on how they handle the data of citizens. Enforcement measures will be taken against willful violators of privacy rights forthwith,” the statement further read.