Ikigai Innovation Initiative in collaboration with Tech Hive Advisory and supported by Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) made this toolkit to help private businesses in Nigeria, especially those run by women, learn about data protection and cybersecurity and find resources that they can use.
According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Nigeria has the highest number of female entrepreneurs globally. There are over 41 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs),with women accounting for 40% of this total. Globally, nine out of every ten businesses fail because of problems like lack of business and leadership skills, lack of family support, lack of access to resources, poor infrastructure, discrimination, fraud attacks, and lack of information.
Because of this, female entrepreneurs in Nigeria often face business stagnation, problems with not following the rules, phishing, targeted online fraud and scams, and data breaches, among other problems. For example, it is common for businesses on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to lose access to their accounts after being phished, or tricked into clicking on a link they did not know about. In the same way, businesses process their clients' data, sometimes without knowing or caring about the rules of data processing. This makes it easy for people's online rights to be violated by accident. Based on this, they are likely to be targets of cyberattacks because of their lack of security infrastructure.
Through this toolkit, we hope to raise awareness of compliance requirements and encourage better online business practices and interactions between businesses and customers. This will help the digital economy grow and help women-owned businesses grow on a larger scale.