ABSTRACT:– Data protection is ensuring sensitive data such as financial information are accessed only by authorised personnel while information management refers to a systematic process of collecting, organising, retrieving, analysing and disseminating information within or out of an organisation. This study seeks to examine the significance of data protection and information management; how it affects and contributes to the operations of a commercial bank in Sierra Leone and to provide solutions to its challenges. A well-structured and validated questionnaire was administered to 50 staff randomly selected from junior and senior categories of staff from different departments in a commercial bank. Data obtained from the field survey were analyzed and presented using statistical tools. The study revealed that data protection and information management have led to the transformation of R Commercial Bank in order to achieve its primary financial objectives. Also, the bank has encountered numerous problems that have posed a threat to data security and information management as a result of ineffective policy implementation. To address the threat of insecurity, proper measures of policy adherence had to be enforced. The researchers recommend that the R Commercial Bank should minimise the quantity of data collection, only necessary data must be collected; embark on data encryption; enforce strict data protection and information management policy and enforce strict monitoring of data usage.
Keywords:- Data Protection, Information Management, Commercial Bank, Data Security and Data encryption.