Nigerian Court upholds provision for banks to collect and verify customers’ social media as part of their KYC process

The court upheld the provision after Chris Eke, a Lagos-based lawyer, filed a lawsuit against the CBN, claiming that the regulation is undemocratic, unconstitutional, and violates a section of the 1999 Constitution.

Details

The CBN regulation, which was issued in 2023, was said to help combat financial crimes and terrorism while also increasing the thoroughness of customer identification. Section 6 (IV) of the CBN regulation requires Nigerian financial institutions to collect and verify customers’ social media handles as part of the Know Your Customer (KYC) process, to improve customer identification accuracy and depth.

Chris Eke filed a suit where he requested that the court grant a perpetual injunction prohibiting CBN from enforcing the aforementioned regulation, CBN, in a notice of preliminary objection, challenged the suit’s competence, claiming that the regulation does not violate the applicant’s privacy.

Digging Deeper

The court stated that the applicant’s claims that the requirements of the CBN Regulations violate his right to privacy are very “ambitious.”

What They’re Saying

“The said regulations are directed to and apply to financial institutions. It does not apply to private individuals such as the applicant,” he said.

He also stated that, while the applicant’s claim could be argued, it is speculative because he did not state that he has a financial institution account and was asked to provide his social media handle.

The judge also stated that providing a social media handle is the same as providing an email address, phone number, and other details.

Consequently, he dismissed the suit.