Stakeholders decry CBN’s directive on social media presence

By Kadiri Abdulrahman

Many stakeholders have deemed the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) directive to Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to investigate their clients’ social media presence to be illegal.

The directive was included in the CBN’s recent Customer Due Diligence Regulations, 2023, which was signed by Chibuzo Efobi, Director, Financial Policy and Regulations Department.

CBN had asked all DMBs to collect complete client information, including social media handles.

According to the directive, commercial banks must now obtain social media handles and digital identification of consumers as part of the financial services sector’s mandated Know Your Customer (KYC) strategy.

According to the top bank’s Customer Due Diligence Regulations 2023 report, the order aims to boost the battle against financial crime.

It stated that financial institutions subject to CBN regulation were now required to collect and verify customers’ social media handles as part of their KYC procedure.

The obligation, it added, applied to both individuals and legal entities and aimed to improve the accuracy and depth of consumer identification.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) stated that the directive was illegal.

According to Vincent Olatunji, National Commissioner of the NDPC, the CBN mandate is unconstitutional and violates the Nigerian Data Protection Act (NDPA) just approved by President Bola Tinubu.

Olatunji stated in a statement issued by the NDPC’s spokesperson, Itunu Dosekun, that the commission was already in discussions with the CBN on the matter.

“The whole idea of this law is to protect the rights, the interests of Nigerians who are data subjects.

“We are already engaging with the CBN to let them know that what they have done is against the law because there are basic principles you must meet when you want to collect citizens’ data.

“There is data minimisation, meaning you do not collect data beyond the purpose for which it was intended,” he said.

In addition, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a non-governmental organisation, denounced the instruction as illegal and a breach of Nigerians’ rights to free expression and privacy.

SERAP urged the CBN Acting Governor, Folashodun Shonubi, to remove the social media instruction from the regulations in a statement published by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare.

He stated that requiring clients’ social network identities or addresses served no reasonable purpose.

Such information, he claims, can be used to unjustifiably or arbitrarily limit customers’ rights to free expression and privacy.

NAN