The Federal Government has begun a probe of online banks over their alleged breaches of customers’ data privacy, it has been learnt.
The Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency, Kashifu Inuwa, who made this known in Abuja, said the agency was working with the Nigeria Police Force and other relevant agencies to investigate several lending platforms, popularly called loan shark platforms.
He said this while addressing journalists ahead of the National Privacy Week 2022.
Amidst outcry of data invasion by Nigerians against lending platforms, NITDA had imposed a fine of 10 million naira on Soko Loan for data breach last August.
In November 2021, NITDA partnered with the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to address the increasing rates of data privacy abuse by money lending organisations, particularly fintech firms.
Also, an ICT expert and Senior Partner at e86 Limited, Olugbenga Odeyemi, said some of the lending platforms were desperate to recover their loans, but it was unfair to breach their customers’ data privacy.
