August 21, (THEWILL) – The National Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has fined Fidelity Bank Plc a total of N555.8 million for infractions relating to breaches of its customers’ data.
Vincent Olatunji, the commission’s National Commissioner, disclosed this at the Validation Workshop on the Nigeria Data Protection Act General Application and Implementation Directive on Wednesday, in Abuja.
He said the Commission has been investigating the Bank since April 2023, adding that the fine, which was issued on Tuesday, must be paid within the next 14 days.
The bank, he noted, violated the NDP Act 2023, and the NDPR 2019, on data breach and was fined the amount being 0.1 percent of the Bank’s annual gross revenue in 2023.
He blamed the bank for its arrogance and poor cooperation during its investigation.
Olatunji said, “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 organisation 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.”
