A Year After the Extant Amendment, the Nigerian Senate Proposes an Amendment to the Data Protection Act 2023

Another bill currently in the works at Nigeria’s House of Senate is the bill seeking to amend the Data Protection Act 2023 barely a year after its enactment.^[1] This bill which has passed its first reading in the Senate is set to change how Nigerians interact with social media. Titled“A Bill for an Act to Alter the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023,” the bill seeks to amend the data protection act signed into law by President Bola Tinubu in June 2023.^[2] The bill’s sponsor Senator Ned Nwoko had emphasized that stringent measures would be put in place against non-compliance with the bill.^[3]

As a major amendment to section 5 of the extant Data Protection Act 2023, the bill requires social media platforms, data controllers, and data processors operating in Nigeria to set up physical offices within the country. It proposes that failure to comply with this requirement for a continuous period of 30 days shall render the entity liable to a prohibition from conducting operations within the jurisdiction of Nigeria. Furthermore, the bill amends Section 65 of the extant act which serves as the interpretation section by the addition of new terms and their interpretations.

For example, Data Controllers are defined as “entities that determine the purposes and means of processing personal data and bear legal responsibility for compliance with data protection laws

Physical Offices mean “a fixed and operational business location within the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.

Operators of Social Media Platforms are “legal persons or entities responsible for owning, managing, or controlling digital platforms that facilitate user interaction, content sharing, or communication.

Its goal is to strengthen compliance with global data protection standards, thereby enhancing Nigeria’s economic and security landscape, improving complaint resolution processes, and building stakeholder confidence.

^[1] Samson Akintaro, ““Senate advances bill mandating social media platforms to establish physical offices in Nigeria”   (Naira metrics) <https://nairametrics.com/2024/11/21/senate-advances-bill-mandating-social-media-platforms-to-establish-physical-offices-in-nigeria/>

^[2] https://kpmg.com/ng/en/home/insights/2023/09/the-nigeria-data-protection-act–2023.html

^[3] Deborah Coker, ‘Why I sponsored data protection act amendment—Nwoko’ (NANnews) https://nannews.ng/2024/11/21/why-i-sponsored-data-protection-act-amendment-nwoko/