Zoho, a leading global technology company with over 80 million users, has applauded President Bola Tinubu’s assent to the Nigeria Data Protection Bill 2023.
With the Presidential Assent the Bill has now become a law regulating data protection in the West African country.
In a telephone interview with TechEconomy, Mr. Kehinde Ogundare, the country manager of Zoho (Nigeria), said that the law is a welcome development and will redefine how businesses manage their customers’ data moving forward.
According to Ogundare, “The Nigeria Data Protection Law 2023 is a welcome development. Before the news broke on Wednesday (June 14, 2023), that afternoon I was telling someone it was about time Nigeria prioritized data protection.
“And from Zoho’s perspective, you know we are a data security and privacy conscious company; which means, it is something we have been doing and always want our customers to enjoy.
“Everybody should enjoy privacy and security of their data. Therefore, the law is a welcome development and Zoho is happy for Nigeria.
Zoho is reputable for its respect for user privacy and does not have an ad-revenue model in any part of its business, including its free products. More than 80 million users around the world, across hundreds of thousands of companies, rely on Zoho everyday to run their businesses, including Zoho itself.
With 55+ apps in nearly every major business category, Zoho Corporation is one of the world’s most prolific technology companies.
Speaking further, the Zoho country manager said the Data Protection Law 2023 will have a huge impact on businesses.
It will redirect many businesses to be cautious in the manner they handle customer’s data. People (customers) will have more control over their data. For example, if I didn’t provide a guarantee for anyone to take a loan from a loan app, if such a person defaults, the loan app company shouldn’t be harassing me with calls or messages. When they were engaging in that transaction I wasn’t even involved. So, nobody should call me without my consent given at the initial time.
Ogundare said
“This law is going to put a check to things like this. Businesses will be more accountable on how they are going to process their customer’s data moving forward. For us, we are a customer-centric, privacy-first company. So, our customers should know that Zoho has already implemented customer data privacy in our business processes.
Businesses in Nigeria also stand to benefit more. We have solutions that can assist them to implement customer data privacy and do things the right way such as our CRM and in fact, all our applications are positioned to assist any user to make better sense of their data. For marketing, you need data, however, you have to be NDPR compliant. It is really exciting”,
he said.
Ogundare further advised businesses, especially the SMEs, to try to manage customer’s data better. “They should protect the data by every lawful means and ensure they get consent to use customer’s data. I think the SMEs will benefit more by leveraging data to make informed decisions; data is the next gold or oil, it should be protected as a tool for human resources, marketing, finance and every aspect of business requires data”, he concluded.
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