Introduction

As part of our operations, Benue Digital Infastructure Company PLC. (BDIC) collects and processes certain types of information (including but not limited to, name, telephone numbers, address phone number, sex,of individuals that makes them easily identifiable. These individuals include current, past and prospective employees, merchants, suppliers/vendors, customers or merchants and other individuals whom BDIC communicates or deals with, jointly and/or severally (“Data Subjects”).

Maintaining the Data Subject’s trust and confidence requires that Data Subjects do not suffer negative consequences/effects as a result of providing BDIC with their Personal Data. To this end, BDIC is firmly committed to complying with applicable data protection laws, regulations, rules and principles to ensure security of Personal Data handled by the Company. This Data Privacy & Protection Policy (“Policy”) describes the minimum standards that must be strictly adhered to regarding the collection, use and disclosure of Personal Data and indicates that BDIC is dedicated to processing the Personal Data it receives or processes with absolute confidentiality and security.

This Policy applies to all forms of systems, operations and processes within the BDIC environment that involve the collection, storage, use, transmission, and disposal of Personal Data.

Failure to comply with the data protection rules and guiding principles set out in the Nigeria Data Protection Act, (NDPA) and the Nigerian Data Protection Regulations 2019 (NDPR) as well as those set out in this Policy is a material violation of BDIC policies and may result in disciplinary action as required, including suspension or termination of employment or business relationship.

Scope

This Policy applies to all employees of BDIC, as well as to any external business partners (such as merchants, suppliers, contractors, vendors and other service providers) who receive, send, collect, access, or process Personal Data in any way on behalf of BDIC, including processing wholly or partly by automated means. This Policy also applies to third party Data Processors who process Personal Data received from BDIC.

General Principles for Processing of  Data

BDIC is committed to maintaining the principles in the NDPA and NDPR regarding the processing of Personal Data.

To demonstrate this commitment as well as our aim of creating a positive privacy culture within our organisation, we adhere to the following basic principles relating to the processing of Personal Data:

• Lawfulness, Fairness and Transparency

Personal Data must be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner at all times. This implies that Personal Data collected and processed by or on behalf of BDIC must be in accordance with the specific, legitimate, and lawful purpose consented to by the Data Subject, save where the processing is otherwise allowed by law or within other legal grounds recognized in the NDPA and NDPR.

• Data Accuracy

Personal Data must be accurate and kept up-to-date. In this regard, BDIC:

1. Shall ensure that any data it collects and/or processes is accurate and not misleading in a way that could be harmful to the Data Subject;
2. Make efforts to keep Personal Data updated where reasonable and applicable; and
3. Make timely efforts to correct or erase Personal Data when inaccuracies are discovered.

Purpose Limitation

BDIC collects Personal Data only for the purposes identified in the BDIC Privacy Notice provided to the Data Subject and for which consent has been obtained. Such Personal Data cannot be reused for another purpose that is incompatible with the original purpose, except a new Consent is obtained.

The purposes for which BDIC will use your personal data includes but not limited to the following:

1. For the provision of services to you. For example, when you purchase any of our products or services, we will use your personal data to process your order.

Data Minimization

BDIC limits Personal Data collection and usage to data that is relevant, adequate, and necessary for carrying out the purpose for which the data is processed.

BDIC will evaluate whether and to what extent the processing of personal data is necessary and where the purpose allows, anonymized data must be used.

Integrity and Confidentiality

BDIC shall establish adequate controls in order to protect the integrity and confidentiality of Personal Data, both in digital and physical format and to prevent personal data from being accidentally or deliberately compromised.

Personal data of Data Subjects must be protected from unauthorized viewing or access and from unauthorized changes to ensure that it is reliable and correct.

Any personal data processing undertaken by an employee who has not been authorized to carry such out as part of their legitimate duties is un-authorized.

Employees may have access to Personal Data only as is appropriate for the type and scope of the task in question and are forbidden to use Personal Data for their own private or commercial purposes or to disclose them to unauthorized persons, or to make them available in any other way.

Human Resources Department must inform employees at the start of the employment relationship about the obligation to maintain personal data privacy. This obligation shall remain in force even after employment has ended.

Personal Data Retention

All personal information shall be retained, stored and destroyed by BDIC in line with legislative and regulatory guidelines. For all Personal Data and records obtained, used and stored within the Company, BDIC shall perform periodical reviews of the data retained to confirm the accuracy, purpose, validity and requirement to retain.

To the extent permitted by applicable laws and without prejudice to BDIC Document Retention Policy, the length of storage of Personal Data shall, amongst other things, be determined by:

(a) the contract terms agreed between BDIC and the Data Subject or as long as it is needed for the purpose for which it was obtained; or

(b) whether the transaction or relationship has statutory implication or a required retention period; or

(c) whether there is an express request for deletion of Personal Data by the Data Subject, provided that such request will only be treated where the Data Subject is not under any investigation which may require BDIC to retain such Personal Data or there is no subsisting contractual arrangement with the Data Subject that would require the processing of the Personal Data; or

Notwithstanding the foregoing and pursuant to the NDPA and NDPR, BDIC shall be entitled to retain and process Personal Data for archiving, scientific research, historical research, or statistical purposes for public interest.

Legal Grounds for Processing of Personal Data

The personal data we collect from our customers and how we collect it depends on the services that our customers subscribe to, how they use our services and how they interact or interface with us. This also applies to persons who are not customers of BDIC but have interacted with BDIC such as our employees and external business partners. We may also obtain your personal data from a third party who has permission to share it with us.

Please note that we collect your data when you provide it to us through any of our data collection points (physical, online, virtually, etc.) and only process your personal data based on the grounds set out in the NDPA and NDPR. Accordingly, processing of Personal Data by BDIC shall be lawful if at least one of the following applies:

1. Where you give us consent to the processing of your Personal Data for one or more specific purposes. You are at liberty to withdraw the consent and BDIC will cease to process your personal where there is no other basis to do so.
2. Where the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the Data Subject is party or to take steps at the request of the Data Subject prior to entering into a contract.
3. Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which BDIC is subject.
4. Processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the Data Subject or of another natural person; and
5. Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in exercise of official public mandate vested in BDIC.
6. For the purposes of the legitimate interest pursued by the data controller or by a third party to whom the data is disclosed.

We collect your personal data when you do any of the following:

Consent

Where processing of Personal Data is based on consent, BDIC shall obtain the requisite consent of Data Subjects at the time of collection of Personal Data. In this regard, BDIC will ensure:

1. That the specific purpose of collection is made known to the Data Subject and the Consent is requested in a clear and plain language,
2. That the Consent is freely given by the Data Subject and obtained without fraud, coercion or undue influence,
3. That the Consent is sufficiently distinct from other matters to which the Data Subject has agreed,
4. That the Consent is explicitly provided in an affirmative manner,
5. That Consent is obtained for each purpose of Personal Data collection and processing; and
6. That it is clearly communicated to and understood by Data Subjects that they can update, manage, or withdraw their Consent at any time.

Valid Consent

For Consent to be valid, it must be given voluntarily by an appropriately informed Data Subject. In line with regulatory requirements, Consent cannot be implied. Silence, pre-ticked boxes or inactivity does not constitute Consent under the NDPA 2023.

Consent in respect of Sensitive Personal Data must be explicit. A tick of the box would not suffice.

Consent of Minors

In the unlikely event that we deal with minors, the consent of minors will always be protected and obtained from minor’s representatives in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements.

Data Subject Rights

All individuals who are the subject of Personal Data held by BDIC are entitled to the following rights:

1. Right to request for and access the Personal Data collected and stored. Where data is held electronically in a structured form, such as in a Database, the Data Subject has a right to receive that data in a common electronic format,
2. Right to information on their personal data collected and stored,
3. Right to objection or request for restriction,
4. Right to request rectification and modification of their data which BDIC keeps,
5. Right to request for deletion of their data, except as restricted by law or BDIC statutory obligations,
6. Right to request the movement of data from BDIC to a Third Party; this is the right to the portability of data; and
7. Right to object to, and to request that BDIC restricts the processing of their information except as required by law or BDIC’s statutory obligations.
8. Right to request that BDIC restricts processing of your personal data and Right
9. To opt out of marketing and unsolicited messages:
10. Right to lodge a complaint with the Commission.

If you no longer want to receive marketing messages from BDIC, you can choose to opt out at any time. If you have previously opted in to receive personalized content based on how and where you use our network, you can also opt out at any time.

To opt out contact:

Email Address: [email protected]

Transfer of Personal Data

Transfer of Personal Data to Foreign Country

BDIC may transfer Personal Data outside Nigeria only if such transfer is permitted by, and is in accordance with Local Regulatory Requirements, and for the purposes described in this Policy. These measures include conducting data protection impact assessments to verify that such country has adequate data protection laws, which binds the recipient to prescribed data handling and data protection requirements acceptable to BDIC and our relevant regulators,. This measures also incudes entering into binding data transfer agreements amongst others.

Data Branch Management Procedure

A data breach procedure is established and maintained in order to deal with incidents concerning Personal Data or privacy practices leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to, Personal Data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed.

All employees must inform their designated line manager or the DPO of Organisation immediately about cases of violations of this Policy or other regulations on the protection of Personal Data, in accordance with BDIC Personal Data Breach Management Procedure in respect of any:

1. Improper transmission of Personal Data across borders;
2. Loss or theft of data or equipment on which data is stored;
3. Accidental sharing of data with someone who does not have a right to know this information;
4. Inappropriate access controls allowing unauthorized use;
5. Equipment failure;
6. Human error resulting in data being shared with someone who does not have a right to know; and
7. Hacking attack.

A data protection breach notification must be made immediately after any data breach to ensure that:

1. Immediate remedial steps can be taken in respect of the breach
2. Any reporting duties to NDPC or any other regulatory authority can be complied with,
3. Any affected Data Subject can be informed and
4. Any stakeholder communication can be managed.

When a potential breach has occurred, BDIC will investigate to determine if an actual breach has occurred, and the actions required to manage and investigate the breach as follows:

1. Validate the Personal Data breach.
2. Ensure proper and impartial investigation (including digital forensics if necessary) is initiated, conducted, documented, and concluded.
3. Identify remediation requirements and track resolution.
4. Report findings to the top management.
5. Coordinate with appropriate authorities as needed.
6. Coordinate internal and external communications.
7. Ensure that impacted Data Subjects are properly notified, if necessary.

Data Protection Impact Assesment 

BDIC shall carry out a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) in respect of any new project or IT system involving the processing of Personal Data to determine whenever a type of processing is likely to result in any risk to the rights and freedoms of the Data Subject.

BDIC shall carry out the DPIA in line with the procedures laid down in the BDIC Data Protection Impact Assessment Policy.

Data Security

All Personal Data must be kept securely and should not be stored any longer than necessary. BDIC will ensure that appropriate measures are employed against unauthorized access, accidental loss, damage and destruction to data. This includes the use of password encrypted databases for digital storage and locked cabinets for those using paper form.

To ensure security of Personal Data, BDIC will, among other things, implement the following appropriate technical controls:

1. Industry-accepted hardening standards, for workstations, servers, and databases.
2. Full disk software encryption on all corporate workstation/laptops operating systems drives storing Personal and Personal/Sensitive Data.
3. Encryption at rest including key management of key databases.
4. Enable Security Audit Logging across all systems managing Personal Data.
5. Restrict the use of removable media such as USB flash disk drives.
6. Anonymization techniques on testing environments.
7. Physical access control where Personal Data are stored in hardcopy.

Data Protection Officer

BDIC shall appoint a Data Protection Officer(s) (DPO) responsible for overseeing the Company’s data protection strategy and its implementation to ensure compliance with the NDPA 2023 requirements. The DPO shall be a knowledgeable person on data privacy and protection principles and shall be familiar with the provisions of the NDPA 2023.

The main tasks of the DPO include:

1. Administering data protection policies and practices of BDIC;
2. Monitoring compliance with the NDPA 2023 and other data protection laws, data protection policies, awareness-raising, training, and audits;
3. Advice the business, management, employees and third parties who carry on processing activities of their obligations under the NDPA 2023;
4. Acts as a contact point for BDIC in every data processing activities;

Training

BDIC shall ensure that employees who collect, access and process Personal Data receive adequate data privacy and protection training in order to develop the necessary knowledge, skills and competence required to effectively manage the compliance framework under this Policy and the NDPA 2023 with regard to the protection of Personal Data. On an annual basis, BDIC shall develop a capacity building plan for its employees on data privacy and protection in line with the NDPA 2023.

Data Protection Audit

BDICshall conduct an annual data protection audit through a licensed Data Protection Compliance Organization (DPCOs) to verify Organisation’s compliance with the provisions of the NDPA 2023 and other applicable data protection laws.

The audit report will be certified and filed by the DPCO to Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) as required under the NDPA 2023.

Related Policies and Procedures

This Policy shall be read in conjunction with the following policies and procedures of BDIC

• Personal Data Breach Management Policy
• IT Security Policy
• Document Rétention Policy
• Cookies Policy
• Privacy Notice
• Data Protection Impact Assessment Procedure

Changes to the Policy

BDIC reserves the right to change, amend or alter this Policy at any point in time. If we amend this Policy, we will provide you with the updated version.

Glossary

“Consent” means any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the Data Subject’s wishes by which he or she, through a statement or a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to the processing of Personal Data relating to him or her.

“Database” means a collection of data organized in a manner that allows access, retrieval, deletion and processing of that data; it includes but not limited to structured, unstructured, cached and file system type Databases.

“Data Processor” means a person or organization that processes Personal Data on behalf and on instructions of BDIC

“DPCO” means an organization registered by NDPC to provide data protection audit, compliance and training services to public and private organizations who process Personal Data in Nigeria.

“Data Subject” means any person, who can be identified, directly or indirectly, by reference to an identification number or to one or more factors specific to his physical, physiological, mental, economic, cultural or social identity.

“NDPR” means the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation, 2019.

“Personal Data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘Data Subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person; It can be anything from a name, address, a photo, an email address, bank details, posts on social networking websites, medical information, and other unique identifier such as but not limited to MAC address, IP address, IMEI number, IMSI number, SIM, Personal Identifiable Information (PII) and others.

“Sensitive Personal Data” means data relating to religious or other beliefs, sexual orientation, health, race, ethnicity, political views, trades union membership, criminal records or any other sensitive personal information.

BDIC is compliant with the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023.