President Bola Tinubu has approved the allocation of an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission-recovered property to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission as its new headquarters.

The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, disclosed this on Monday during the commissioning of the facility in Abuja.

Tijani said the property was allocated after the NDPC raised concerns that its expanding responsibilities and growing international profile were not matched by a suitable permanent office.

“The President directed that a property of this size that was recovered from the work of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission be allocated to NDPC,” the minister said.

He described the conversion of the recovered asset into a government facility as an example of putting recovered properties to productive use.

Tijani said the property, once associated with the consequences of corruption, would now serve an institution responsible for protecting Nigerians’ personal data and strengthening trust in the digital economy.

The minister also disclosed that the NDPC faced funding challenges during its early years, including difficulties meeting salary obligations, before the President provided direct financial support until the commission became capable of generating enough revenue to sustain its operations.

He said Tinubu signed the Nigeria Data Protection Act shortly after assuming office in 2023, giving the commission a legal framework to protect Nigerians’ privacy and personal data.

According to Tijani, the President subsequently directed ministries, departments and agencies to comply with Nigeria’s data protection laws and frameworks.

He said data protection would become increasingly important as Nigeria’s digital economy expands, particularly with the growing use of artificial intelligence.

“As our digital economy expands, as more government services become digital, as more Nigerian businesses use data to create value, and particularly as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in our economy and society, questions around privacy, data governance, trust, and the responsible use of technology will continue to become more important,” he said.

Speaking earlier, the NDPC National Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, Vincent Olatunji, said the commission received approval for the property from the EFCC in July 2025, while renovation began in March 2026.

Olatunji said the new headquarters represented a major transformation for an agency that began with limited office space and funding.

He said the NDPC started with about 12 employees in February 2022 without dedicated funding and that he initially used personal funds to support its operations. The agency later received N50m from the National Information Technology Development Agency in September 2022 as its first major funding support.

Olatunji said the commission had since licensed 356 Data Protection Compliance Organisations, while the activities of the NDPC and the licensed organisations had created more than 27,000 jobs within three years.

He added that the commission had generated more than N12bn in revenue within three years, while the data privacy and protection ecosystem was valued at more than N18bn.

The commissioner said more than 66,000 Nigerians had enrolled in the agency’s virtual privacy academy, while 220 training programmes had benefited 99,370 people.

He also said the commission had established 17 data privacy clubs in universities, created 6,176 student ambassadors and reached more than 250,000 Nigerians through its engagements.

According to Olatunji, representatives from 17 countries had visited Nigeria in the past two years to learn from the commission, while the NDPC had signed 28 memoranda of understanding with organisations and data protection authorities in countries including Canada, Morocco, Liberia, Kenya and Ghana.

The NDPC’s Head of People Management and Administration, Mrs Watira Fitto, said the new facility reflected the commission’s growth since its establishment.

She said the headquarters would strengthen the agency’s ability to enforce compliance and safeguard Nigerians’ data rights.

Fitto said the NDPC had operated from four locations within four years, growing from fewer than three office spaces at NITDA to about eight in Maitama and 26 in Asokoro before moving to the new facility in Mbora District, Abuja.