We keep personal data only as long as it serves the purpose it was collected for, or as long as the law requires — whichever is longer for financial and statutory records, and whichever is shorter for everything else.
Data category
Retention approach
Why
Donation, expense, and fund records
Minimum 6 years from the end of the relevant financial year
CAMA annual-return and audit requirements; standard Nigerian financial record-keeping practice
Anti-money-laundering records (SCUML-relevant donor/donation data)
As required by the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 and SCUML guidance
Statutory obligation
Active beneficiary records (case notes, contact details, cohort/outcome history)
For the duration of program participation, plus a limited follow-up window to track post-program outcomes (e.g., retention in employment)
Program purpose — including the Academy's own “as of [month]” retention-tracking practice for placement claims
Beneficiary records after program exit with no further contact
Reviewed for archival or deletion after a defined period of inactivity; case notes and contact details are the first fields removed
Data minimization — outcome and impact-history data may be retained longer, in de-identified form, for the Academy's own longitudinal impact reporting
Consent records (signed forms, consent-flag history)
Retained for as long as the underlying consent is relied upon, plus a reasonable period afterward to evidence that consent was properly obtained
Accountability — being able to show, not just assert, that consent existed
Staff, program staff, finance staff, and mentor/volunteer account data
For the duration of the working/volunteer relationship, plus a limited period afterward for administrative and legal purposes
Operational and legal necessity
Website analytics and contact-form submissions
Aggregated or deleted after a limited period; contact-form submissions kept only as long as needed to respond
Data minimization
When personal data reaches the end of its retention period, it is deleted or irreversibly anonymized. Financial records subject to statutory retention are the deliberate exception in the platform's own design — donation and expense records use protective, non-cascading deletion rules precisely so that money records cannot be silently or accidentally destroyed before their statutory retention period ends.