The data dignity deficit: Nigerians and the fight for digital citizenship

    Hani Okoroafor | Insights | Mar 18, 2026    
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Nigeria’s digital economy is expanding at remarkable pace, but beneath the celebratory narrative of innovation lies a more consequential question: who owns the Nigerian citizen in the digital age? As the country digitises finance, commerce, identity systems, governance, and everyday communication, personal data has become one of the most valuable resources in the national economy. Yet the social and institutional structures required to protect that data remain underdeveloped. The result is a widening deficit that may be described as a crisis of data dignity - the gap between the enormous value extracted from citizens’ digital lives and the minimal control citizens possess over that information.

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