The National Data Protection Commission has imposed a fine of N555.8 million on Fidelity Bank for breaches related to its customers’ data.
Vincent Olatunji, the Commission’s National Commissioner, announced this penalty at the Validation Workshop on the Nigeria Data Protection Act General Application and Implementation Directive held on Wednesday in Abuja.
Olatunji stated that Fidelity Bank had violated the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDP Act) 2023 and the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) 2019 concerning data breaches.
The fine, which amounts to 0.1 percent of the bank’s annual gross revenue for 2023, is the largest ever issued by the Commission. The National Commissioner highlighted that the severity of the fine was compounded by the bank’s perceived arrogance and inadequate cooperation during the investigation.
Olatunji said, “Data protection compliance is important and we have stated that non-compliance will be punished. We have penalties that range from N10m or up to two percent of gross earnings for 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 organization involved on the remuneration fee.
“Since we started, the major penalty we issued was yesterday (Tuesday) on fidelity bank. For the violation of the NDP Act, 2023, and the NDPR, 2019, we issued a fine of N555.8m and they have to pay. We have observed serious breaches and we have been working with them, investigating the issue since April 2023. But by the time we finalised our findings, they became arrogant and we decided to issue a full penalty on them which is about 0.1 per cent of their earnings for 2023.
“This is to be paid within 14 days upon the receipt of this Notice,” he added.
