Broadcasting
The Growing Importance of Privacy Amongst Customers and How Businesses Should Cater to it
By Kehinde Ogundare, Country Manager, Zoho Nigeria | Veerakumar Natarajan, Country Head – Kenya, Zoho Corp
Privacy is a growing concern for technology consumers worldwide. While there was a time when that may not have been the case for countries like Nigeria and Kenya, that’s no longer the reality. As connectivity becomes more affordable and ubiquitous, Kenyans and Nigerians have become increasingly tech-savvy and conscious regarding how much data they share with technology companies and what the latter are doing with it.
In the face of these growing concerns, companies operating in Africa need to be mindful of the increasing privacy mindset of their customers. Aside from regulatory compliance, companies should actively demonstrate that they care about their customers’ privacy concerns in order to build and sustain trust and to show they’re taking a proactive approach to protect their personal information.
The importance of regulatory compliance
The first step any company should take to safeguard their customers’ privacy is ensuring they’re compliant with all of the relevant laws and regulations. In countries like Kenya and Nigeria, data protection regulations are relatively new.
The Data Protection Act of 2019, enforced by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC), regulates data protection in Kenya. The act expressly prohibits organisations from processing personal data if their consent has not been provided first. Each organisation must have a data controller and/or a data processor whose responsibility is to prove they’ve obtained consent before processing a person’s data.
Nigeria’s Data Protection Act, meanwhile, was signed into law in 2023. The act governs both manual and automatic data processing. The act also established the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), which is an independent body that governs data protection and regulation in the country. In addition to defining sensitive personal data as including an individual’s genetic and biometric data as well as their race, ethnicity, and health status, among other things, the act also provides specific grounds for the processing of this sensitive personal data. According to the act, such data can be processed where consent is provided or where processing is necessary for social security or employment laws.
Both of these laws are in line with similar laws and regulations around the world, such as Europe’s GDPR. That means they’re not only a good place for Nigerian and Kenyan businesses to start for compliance, but they also help businesses gain good footing when it comes to protecting customer data should they start operating internationally.
Beyond compliance
Companies should, however, view regulatory compliance as the bare minimum when it comes to meeting their customers’ privacy needs. Given the parlous state of privacy protection across many African countries, going above and beyond with customer privacy can be a positive differentiator for companies that get it right.
Among the initiatives they can undertake in this direction are investing in data center security to minimise the collection of data, requesting permission from customers while collecting sensitive information, and ultimately reducing their reliance on selling user data for revenue gains. Another initiative that organisations can implement is implementing multi-factor authentication if they require customers to log in to an account to access their products and services.
Another aspect that businesses should pay close attention to is which technology vendor they work with to run their internal operations. Businesses should ensure the third-party tech tools they deploy within their IT infrastructure also come with strong data privacy and protection controls, and the corresponding vendors also practice transparent data collection practices. Should one of these vendors fall victim to a cybersecurity breach, the customer data of the organisations using it could easily fall into nefarious hands.
Businesses should, therefore, ensure they make use of software providers and vendors that are, themselves, compliant with all the relevant privacy laws and regulations, and offer a comprehensive set of security measures and procedures, including controlled user access, enterprise mobility management (EMM) integration, IP restrictions, and secure integrations.
Riding the positives of proactive protection
While there are many negatives associated with data protection failures, including reputational damage and legal punishments, it’s also important that organisations understand the positives associated with proactive data protection.
High up on the list of those positives is building trust. Customers who trust the companies they buy from are more likely to be loyal in the long term, make repeat purchases in the future, and act as evangelists to others. At a time when customers are increasingly concerned about data privacy, building that trust is more difficult, but also more rewarding than ever. It, in other words, is something worth investing in.
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has directed Overland Airways to refund Value Added Tax (VAT) wrongly charged to passengers on flight tickets purchased in 2025.
NCAA
The directive follows a social media complaint that highlighted the airline’s application of new tax policies to older bookings, prompting NCAA intervention.
Michael Achimugu, NCAA Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, confirmed Friday that Overland Airways agreed to process refunds after receiving clarification from the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS).
The issue emerged in late January 2026 when a passenger alleged on X (formerly Twitter) that her grandmother faced an extra N11,286 VAT charge at the airport for a 2025 ticket. On January 28, NCAA summoned the airline to justify the additional payments for pre-2026 tickets.
The regulator sought NRS guidance on retroactive VAT application. NRS ruled that updated VAT rules, effective January 1, 2026, exclude tickets issued before that date.
Achimugu updated on X: “This means passengers who paid VAT at check-in in 2026 for 2025 tickets were not supposed to be charged.”
Overland Airways accepted the clarification and pledged refunds, earning NCAA commendation for cooperation. Achimugu noted the airline initially viewed charges as valid under the new framework, but NRS interpretation prevailed.
“The issue has reached a satisfactory conclusion,” he stated, reaffirming NCAA’s commitment to passenger rights and fair policy enforcement.
Affected passengers who paid extra VAT on 2025-issued Overland tickets qualify for full refunds.
MultiChoice has said that it will not implement its customary yearly price increase on DStv and GOtv subscriptions.
This is the first time the Pay-TV company will not be adjusting its price in April, as it has in previous years, signalling a clear shift in direction under its new owner, Canal+.
The decision, confirmed by David Mignot, group chief executive,MultiChoice in an interview with TechCentral, comes as the pay television operator grapples with steep subscriber losses across its markets.
For many households accustomed to annual April tariff adjustments, the announcement will be a welcome break.
Responding to questions about whether DStv prices would rise in April as they have in previous years, Mignot gave a firm response: there will be no increase.
He explained that the company’s immediate focus is on rebuilding its subscriber base, making this an unsuitable period to adjust prices upward.
He added that while there are no current plans for a price hike, the company has not completely ruled out adjustments later in the year, especially if economic conditions demand it, such as significant currency movements.
MultiChoice has historically reviewed and raised DStv subscription fees in April, often citing inflationary pressures and rising content costs. As recently as April 2025, bouquet prices were adjusted upwards by between 2.1 per cent and 7.9 per cent.
The DStv Premium package rose from R929 to R979 per month, while DStv Access, the entry-level satellite package, recorded one of the steepest increases.
This year’s pause represents a break from that pattern and forms part of a broader reset following Canal+’s acquisition of MultiChoice in September 2025.
Mignot, who brings three decades of experience in the pay television industry, summed up his mission in simple terms: halt subscriber losses and return the business to growth.
The urgency behind the move is evident in MultiChoice’s recent performance.
The group has lost 2.8 million linear broadcasting subscribers in the two years ended 31 March 2025, with roughly half of those losses occurring in South Africa.
In the financial year to end-March 2025 alone, MultiChoice shed 1.2 million subscribers, representing an eight per cent year-on-year decline and leaving the group with 14.5 million active customers.
The previous year saw an even steeper drop of 1.6 million subscribers. By June 2025, Canal+ indicated that the pace of decline had intensified further.
The financial impact has been significant. Revenue for the year ended 31 March 2025 declined by R4 billion to R52 billion, while trading profit fell sharply by 49 per cent to R4 billion.
According to Mignot, the company’s difficulties stem less from its programming slate and more from weaknesses in its commercial execution.
He argued that in subscription businesses, a churn rate of between 12 and 15 per cent annually is inevitable as customers relocate, experience job losses, adjust household budgets, or change priorities. Without attracting a comparable number of new subscribers each year, losses accumulate.
Mignot maintained that the content offering remains strong, particularly in sport and general entertainment. He cited flagship brands such as SuperSport, M-Net and Africa Magic as evidence of sustained investment in programming. However, he stressed that content strength alone cannot offset a weakening subscriber acquisition engine.
He noted that MultiChoice’s commercial machinery had performed robustly across Africa until around 2022, describing the current challenges as relatively recent.
Drawing on Canal+’s experience in French-speaking African markets, Mignot pointed out that pricing there has remained largely unchanged for close to 14 years, supported by a volume-driven approach. He described his strategy as one focused on growing subscriber numbers while maintaining profitability.
While he did not dismiss the possibility of reviewing prices downward in future, he indicated that no such decision has been taken.
Spotify marked five years in Nigeria since its February 2021 launch with dramatic year-on-year listening growth averaging 163.5% through 2025, featuring triple-digit surges early on and sustained momentum, propelled by Afrobeats streams rocketing +5,022% alongside booming genres like Amapiano (+10,330%), Gospel/Praise (+5,499%), Hip-hop/Rap (+3,020%), and R&B (+2,602%).
Spotify
Indigenous language music listening surged +554% in Nigeria in 2024 and +87% in 2025, with global growth at +141% and +41% respectively, underscoring rising demand for local storytelling sounds.
The platform’s Nigerian artist roster expanded +158%, fueling a discovery boom where average listeners (aged 26) streamed 150 different artists recently; users created over 25 million playlists, logged 1.4 million play hours in 2025 alone, and streamed 59 billion podcast hours total.
Top Artists (2021-2025): Asake, Wizkid, Seyi Vibez, Burna Boy, Davido.
Top Songs: “Remember” (Asake), “Dealer” (Ayo Maff & Fireboy DML), “Awolowo” (Fido), “Kese (Dance)” (Wizkid), “Lonely At The Top” (Asake), “Joy is Coming” (Fido), “With You” (Davido feat. Omah Lay), “Terminator” (Asake), “MMS” (Asake feat. Wizkid), “Doha” (Seyi Vibez).
Nigeria’s debut stream was Shiga Lin’s Cantopop epitomizing borderless discovery from day one.
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