The National Commissioner of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, Vincent Olatunji, has disclosed that the commission has formed a joint committee with the Central Bank of Nigeria to review the regulation mandating financial institutions to obtain social media handles, among other data, of customers.
This disclosure was made during a two-day sensitization workshop on Data Privacy and Protection in Abuja.
Earlier in June this year, the CBN mandated financial institutions to obtain the social media handles, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, residential addresses, and more of their customers.
This move was aimed at enhancing the identification process within the banking system and was documented in the ‘Central Bank of Nigeria (Customer Due Diligence) Regulations, 2023’.
This was included in its new client due diligence standards and is an effort to significantly strengthen the banking system’s identification procedure.
The apex bank disclosed this in its ‘Central Bank of Nigeria (Customer Due Diligence) Regulations, 2023’ document.
The CBN added that its new regulation was created to provide additional customer due diligence measures for financial institutions under its regulatory purview.
However, the NDPC had kicked against the regulation, describing it as unnecessary.
