Privacy Breach: Data Protection Commission slams N555.8m fine on Fidelity Bank

Privacy Breach: Data Protection Commission slams N555.8m fine on Fidelity Bank

The National Data Protection Commission has fined Fidelity Bank a total of N555.8 million for infractions related to breaches of its customers’ data.

The commission’s National Commissioner, Vincent Olatunji, announced this at the Validation Workshop on the Nigeria Data Protection Act General Application and Implementation Directive on Wednesday in Abuja.

He stated that the tier-one bank violated the NDP Act, 2023, and the NDPR, 2019, concerning data breaches and was fined an amount equal to 0.1 percent of the bank’s annual gross revenue for 2023.

The CEO stated that the fine, which represents the highest ever imposed by the commission, was aggravated by the bank’s arrogance and lack of cooperation during the investigation.

Olatunji said, “Data protection compliance is crucial, and we have made it clear that non-compliance will be penalized. Our penalties range from N10 million to up to 2 percent of gross earnings from the previous year.”

“But our approach has been creating awareness and letting people know what we are supposed to be doing and most of the breaches we try to look at the level of breach, impact, and the number of data subjects affected and the level of cooperation by the organisation involved on the remuneration fee.

“Since we started, the major penalty we issued was yesterday (Tuesday) to Fidelity Bank. For violations of the NDP Act, 2023, and the NDPR, 2019, we imposed a fine of N555.8 million, which they are required to pay.

“We have observed serious breaches and have been working with them, investigating the issue since April 2023. However, by the time we finalized our findings, they had become arrogant, leading us to impose the full penalty, which amounts to about 0.1 percent of their earnings for 2023.”

“This is to be paid within 14 days upon the receipt of this Notice,” he added.