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The Importance of GDPR Compliance for Nigerian Businesses

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Adebayo Sanni, MD of Oracle Nigeria
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By Adebayo Sanni

The deadline for compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has come and gone.

 

And while it happened without too much fanfare in Nigeria, companies that think they can ignore the legislation and maintain a business as usual approach are in for a rude awakening.

 

Any organisation (irrespective its size, industry or geographic location) that has dealings with a company or people inside the European Union (EU) must adhere to it.

 

Those not willing to do so, face fines of either 20 million euros or four percent of their global revenue.

 

Already, the past few weeks have seen a notable increase in emails from subscription lists mentioning data privacy and how the personal information of subscribers are stored and kept safe.

 

For cloud providers that have customers around the world, this is a significant piece of regulation. However, even a small start-up in downtown Lagos that provides a service to a person living in France must be compliant.

 

While a lot of focus is currently on companies inside the EU, it will only be a matter of time before ‘outside’ businesses and services are reviewed and audited.

 

Of course, the cloud provides many benefits to organisations that are required to be GDPR-compliant.

 

Not only does it provide a more secure platform, but the environment is robust and continuously updated to reflect the latest technology innovations.

 

This results in a smoother migration path when it comes to data security and management with GDPR in mind.

Changing behaviour

At 68 pages with 99 separate areas of focus, it is hardly surprising that many feel intimidated by the GDPR. For those providing cloud or ‘as-a-service’ solutions, there are four key requirements to consider – data security; rights of individuals; documentation and security audits; and data breach notifications.

 

But even before one can delve into the technical aspects of compliancy, the reality is that many Nigerian businesses need to change the way they view and use data. Certainly, the situation is not unique to the country with many others struggling to adapt to a new way of capturing, storing, using, and sharing data.

 

It all starts with consent and whether the user agrees to the kind of data being stored about them and what it will be used for.

 

This forces a re-think in the way data is collected. Companies should carefully review whether the information they collect about their customers are necessary and, if it is, how securely is it stored and protected from external systems.

 

The days of blindly sharing customer data and insights with third parties are a thing of the past. An important aspect of this is to make sure the language used in data collection policies is written in a way that the layperson can understand. So, no more hiding behind legalese or difficult to follow technical concepts.

 

Already, there is a groundswell of support to the mantra ‘your data, your property.’ Nigerian businesses must ensure they keep this in mind.

 

This is also where the critically important ‘right to forget’ component of GDPR comes in. A consumer can delete his or her profile at a business with the personal information needing to be wiped clear. Just consider the impact this will have on social networks.

 

Local guidance

Fortunately, Nigeria has the Digital Rights and Freedom Bill for companies to fall back on. Even though it is still awaiting presidential assent, the bill does provide organisations with guidance on data handling, collection, and use in the country.

 

Furthermore, compliance is not something that is done once and forgotten. Instead, decision-makers need to continually review and assess their data management strategies and policies. The GDPR is an ongoing concern that requires an integrated approach to data.

 

Fundamentally, local companies do not have the luxury of using disparate databases and systems any longer. They must all be integrated, with the data securely stored every step of the process.

 

Even though the deadline of 25 May is long forgotten, companies must review and assess their policies to ensure they do not fall foul of regulators. The cost of not doing so is too severe to ignore.

 

Adebayo Sanni is MD of Oracle Nigeria


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E-Business

Huawei Unveils AI Computing System to Challenge Nvidia’s Flagship Product

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China’s Huawei Technologies unveiled an AI computing system on Saturday that an industry expert said rivals Nvidia’s most advanced product, as the company aims to expand its footprint in the country’s booming AI sector.

Huawei Unveils AI Computing System to Challenge Nvidia’s Flagship Product

The CloudMatrix 384 system made its public debut at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), a three-day event in Shanghai, attracting a large crowd to Huawei’s booth with its showcase of cutting-edge AI innovations.

The system has attracted significant interest from the global AI community since Huawei (HWT.UL) first introduced it in April. Industry analysts see it as a direct challenger to Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72, the most advanced system-level offering currently available from the U.S. chipmaker.

In an April article, Dylan Patel, founder of semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis, stated that Huawei now possesses AI system capabilities that could surpass those of Nvidia.

Huawei staff at its WAIC booth declined to comment when asked to introduce the CloudMatrix 384 system.

A spokesperson for Huawei did not respond to questions.

Huawei has become widely regarded as China’s most promising domestic supplier of chips essential for AI development, even though the company faces U.S. export restrictions.

Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang told Bloomberg in May that Huawei had been “moving quite fast” and named the CloudMatrix as an example.

The CloudMatrix 384 system features 384 of Huawei’s latest 910C chips and, according to SemiAnalysis, surpasses Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 in certain performance metrics, despite the latter using 72 B200 chips.

SemiAnalysis attributes this performance advantage to Huawei’s strong system design, which offsets the lower power of individual chips by leveraging a greater number of them and incorporating system-level innovations.

Huawei describes the system as utilizing a “supernode” architecture that enables ultra-high-speed interconnectivity between chips.

In June, Zhang Pingan, CEO, Huawei Cloud confirmed that the CloudMatrix 384 was already operational on Huawei’s cloud platform.


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Transcorp Hotels Delivers Stellar H1 Results, Declares Over ₦1Bn Dividend

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Transcorp Hotels Plc has delivered a stellar performance in the first half of 2025, recording a 60% year-on-year surge in revenue to ₦47.57 billion, up from ₦29.72 billion in H1 2024. Gross profit climbed 71% to ₦36.21 billion, maintaining a strong 76% margin despite inflation and operational headwinds.

The hospitality giant, a subsidiary of Transnational Corporation Plc, also announced an interim dividend payout of ₦1.024 billion — offering ₦0.10 per 50 kobo ordinary share to shareholders.

In a bold move, the company unveiled Nigeria’s largest corporate venue — the 5,000-seat Transcorp Centre — staking its claim as the new leader in event hospitality. Chairman Emmanuel Nnorom described the results as proof of Transcorp Hotels’ transformative strategies and unwavering investor commitment. MD/CEO Uzo Oshogwe attributed the success to relentless execution and a resilient business model.

Transcorp Hotels, renowned for iconic assets like Transcorp Hilton Abuja and its digital platform Aura, says it isn’t just leading Nigeria’s hospitality sector — it’s redefining excellence across Africa.


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Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

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Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.

Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

 

China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.

The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.

“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.

The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.

It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.

Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.

Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.

Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.

A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.

“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.

Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.

Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.

It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.

Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.

 

 

 


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