By Adadareporters
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), Wednesday, said it would sue the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over its new regulations requiring customers to submit their social media handles to the apex bank.
Adadareporters gathered that CBN, in its new customer Due Diligence Regulations, mandated financial institutions to obtain social media handles, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, residential addresses, among others, from their customers. The measure, it was gathered, was aimed at identifying bank customers.
SERAP, in a reaction, told the acting CBN governor, Mr Folashodun Shonubi, to abandon the provisions in the CBN (Customer Due Diligence) regulations or face legal action.
SERAP’s deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, in a letter dated June 24, 2023, said the CBN directive to banks to obtain details of customers’ social media addresses violated Nigerians’ rights to freedom of expression and privacy. According to him, the order was inconsistent with the rule of law.
Quoting the letter, “We would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within three days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter. If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall take all appropriate legal actions to compel you and the CBN to comply with our request in the public interest.
“The mandatory requirement of social media handles or addresses of customers does not serve any legitimate aim. Such information may be used to unjustifiably or arbitrarily to restrict the rights to freedom of expression and privacy.
“SERAP is gravely concerned that the CBN regulations and directive to banks and other financial institutions would impermissibly restrict the constitutional and international rights to freedom of expression, privacy and victims’ right to justice and effective remedies.
“Requiring social media handles or addresses of customers as a means of identification would have a disproportionate chilling effect on the effective enjoyment by Nigerians of their rights to freedom of expression and privacy online.
“The CBN bears the burden of justifying any restriction on people’s freedom of expression and privacy. Under the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] and human rights treaties to which the country is a state party, any restrictions on these rights must be applied strictly so that the rights are not put in jeopardy.
“There are other means of identification such as passport, driver’s licence, Bank Verification Number (BVN), and Tax Identification Number (TIN), which banks and other financial institutions already require their customers to provide.
“The additional requirement of obtaining details of a customer’s social media handle or address fails to meet the requirements of legality, necessity, and proportionality.
“The requirement of necessity implies an assessment of the proportionality of the grounds, with the aim of ensuring that the excuse of ‘regulations on customer due diligence’ is not used as a pretext to unduly intrude upon the rights to freedom of expression and privacy.
“The CBN regulation does not demonstrate how the use of social media handle or address as a means of identification would serve to improve banks and other financial institutions’ ability to implement and comply with the laws and regulations relating to customer due diligence.”
