Prior to 2019, the data protection and privacy landscape in
Nigeria was largely regulated by the National Information
Technology Development Agency (NITDA or "the Agency")
Act, 2007 (NITDA Act). In 2019, however, the Nigeria Data
Protection Regulation, 2019 (NDPR) was issued as a subsidiary
legislation to the NITDA Act with the Agency empowered to oversee
the implementation of the NDPR. Subsequently, in February 2022, the
Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB or "the Bureau") was
established by President Muhammadu Buhari to replace NITDA as the
primary regulator of the data protection and privacy space in
Nigeria.
Since then, stakeholders in the industry have keenly anticipated
a more robust legal framework, preferably an Act, to regulate the
emerging data protection and privacy regime in Nigeria. Notably,
there have been attempts since 2018 at passing a Data Protection
Bill into law but this has not been successful. In October, 2022,
however, a draft of the Nigeria
