Key Points

• Nigeria’s palm data-economy means massive value is generated daily.

• Ownership of Nigeria’s palm data remains concentrated among platforms and states.

• Developing local data-processing ecosystems is Nigeria’s path to capture value.

People now call data the “new oil” of the modern world, and that is especially true in Nigeria. Every click, transaction, health record, and tweet adds to a growing ocean of digital information. But even though this huge amount of data is very valuable, there is still one big question: who really owns Nigeria’s digital wealth?

Data is the new oil in Nigeria’s economy

Nigeria has the most people living in a digital hub in Africa and is one of the fastest-growing internet markets in the world. There are more than 220 million active mobile subscriptions, 150 million internet users, and one of the most active fintech and e-commerce ecosystems on the continent.

Every second, telecom companies, banks, payment platforms, and app developers gather and sell this steady stream of personal information. Nigeria has found a new “digital oilfield,” but unlike crude oil, which the state owns and refines locally, the ownership and control of data are still unclear and divided.

Data is now stored and processed by multiple players—telecom firms, banks, foreign cloud servers, social media companies, and local start-ups. Policy analysts say that the main problem is that Nigerian law doesn’t clearly recognise who owns data, which makes it unclear who has legal and economic rights to it.

Who owns Nigeria’s digital assets?

Telecommunications companies like MTN Nigeria, Airtel, and Globacom, as well as financial institutions that handle millions of digital transactions every day, and tech platforms like Meta, Google, and X (Twitter) are the main data collectors in Nigeria’s data economy. These companies process raw data, turning personal information into targeted ads, credit analytics, and market insights.

Government agencies also control massive national databases—from the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and health registries. At the same time, thousands of new businesses and small businesses are popping up in data analytics, logistics, and digital marketing. They are using both public and private datasets to build new value chains.

But according to the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023, people (called “data subjects”) have the right to privacy and consent, but not to own their data as property. In short, other people can make money off of your personal information without you getting a direct cut. Data localisation rules are still weak, so a lot of Nigeria’s data is still stored on servers outside of the country.

Sharing the upside is what capturing value means

There are real risks. In July 2024, Nigeria’s consumer protection agency fined Meta Platforms more than $220 million for breaking the country’s rules about how to use data. The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) punished Fidelity Bank and other companies for processing customer data without getting the right consent. These cases underscore how foreign and domestic players have monetised Nigerian data with limited oversight or benefit to citizens.

Experts warn that unless Nigeria builds a strong local data ecosystem—through homegrown servers, data centres, analytics firms, and clear legal frameworks—the country will continue exporting its digital wealth without capturing its full value.

As Nigeria moves towards a $150 billion digital economy by 2030, the problem is no longer making data; it’s owning it, improving it, and making money from it.

In this new oil economy, the person who owns the data owns the future.