According to Channel Tv, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued a mandate to financial institutions, requiring them to collect customers’ social media handles as part of the identification process.
The CBN has also instructed these institutions to gather customers’ email addresses, telephone numbers, and residential addresses, among other details.
These directives are outlined in the newly released CBN customer due diligence regulations, which aim to strengthen the identification procedures within the banking system.
The ‘Central Bank of Nigeria (Customer Due Diligence) Regulations, 2023’ document was published on the CBN website on Friday.
The primary goal of these regulations is to implement enhanced customer due diligence measures for financial institutions under the CBN’s supervision.
These measures ensure compliance with relevant laws, such as the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act (MLPPA) of 2022, the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act (TPPA) of 2022, and the Central Bank of Nigeria (Anti-Money Laundering, Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Countering Proliferation Financing of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Financial Institutions) Regulations of 2022 (CBN AML, CFT, and CPF Regulations).
By aligning with international best practices, these regulations empower the Central Bank of Nigeria to enforce compliance with the specified customer due diligence measures outlined in the CBN regulations.