africa
Nigeria
Nigeria's data protection framework has matured into a national act supported by a dedicated regulator.
Editorial caveat
Structured values summarize official materials for research and planning. They are reviewed by humans before publication and should not be treated as legal advice.
medium confidence, The national regime is newer and should be reviewed against regulator practice as it stabilizes.
Breach
- Breach deadline (hours)
- 72
- Breach notification required
- Yes
Marketing
- Cookie consent rule
- Online tracking is influenced by consent expectations and lawful basis requirements under the NDPA.
Transfers
- Cross-border transfer restricted
- Yes
- Data localization required
- No
Governance
- DPO required
- Yes
- Impact assessment required
- Yes
- Records of processing required
- Yes
Identity
- Effective date
- 2023-06-12
- Effective status
- in-force
- Last amended
- 2023-06-12
- Law status
- active
Scope
- Extraterritorial application
- Yes
- Private sector coverage
- Applies broadly to private-sector controllers and processors.
- Public sector coverage
- Public institutions are also subject to the Act.
- Territorial scope
- Applies to processing in Nigeria and to controllers or processors outside Nigeria targeting individuals in Nigeria.
Legal Basis
- Legal bases
- consent, contract, legal obligation, vital interests, public interest
- Requires legal basis
- Yes
Enforcement
- Maximum fine
- The NDPA permits significant monetary penalties scaled to controller size and turnover.
- Private right of action
- Yes
- Regulator or enforcement authority summary
- Nigeria Data Protection Commission
Definitions
- Personal data definition
- Personal data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual.
- Sensitive data recognized
- Yes
Rights
- Right of access
- Yes
- Right to appeal
- Yes
- Right to deletion
- Yes
- Right to erasure or delete summary
- Deletion / erasure rights
- Right to object
- Yes
- Right to portability
- Yes
- Right to rectification or correction summary
- Rectification right
Official sources
- NDPA textPrimary official law • en • html
- NDPC guidanceSecondary official material • en • html