Owning Your Health Data: What the NDPA 2023 Means for Nigerian Patients

For decades, patient records in Nigeria were treated as the property of the hospitals that wrote them down. If you wanted your file, you had to ask for permission. If you changed hospitals, your history stayed behind. But the legal landscape has fundamentally shifted.

Signed into law by the President, the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023 establishes a clear framework for data privacy, placing the patient at the absolute centre. Under the NDPA, health information is classified as "Sensitive Personal Data," granting it the highest level of protection and granting you, the patient, unambiguous rights.

Key Rights Under the NDPA 2023:

1. Right to Consent: Healthcare providers cannot process, share, or store your health data without your explicit, free, and informed consent.

2. Right to Access & Portability: You have the right to request a complete copy of your records in a structured, commonly used electronic format to take to any other provider.

3. Right to Correction & Erasure: If a record is inaccurate or outdated, you have the right to request immediate correction or deletion.

WelliRecord is built from the ground up to enforce these exact rights. When you register your vault, you become the legal custodian. Providers must request permission to view or write to your record, and you grant it using a secure OTP code.

By digitizing and placing the record in your hands, WelliRecord turns the legal promise of the NDPA 2023 into a practical, everyday reality.