Nigerians have reacted to the recent directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to banks and other financial institutions making the use of social media handles for KYC operations mandatory. The directive was contained in its Customer Due Diligence Regulations 2023 for all financial institutions under its regulatory purview.

Under the new regulations, the apex bank informed banks to deploy the use of social media in know-your-customer and other forms of identity verifications. To this end, it means that customers who need to be verified will have to enter their national identity number, phone number or email, physical address, and then social media handle.

Now, Section 6(iv) of the CBN’s new regulations will make it so that banks have to ask users to confirm their identities using social media—platforms that already have poor and troubling KYC policies. The requirements cover both individuals and businesses, all of whom will need to provide social media handles moving forward. 

However, many Nigerians seem uncomfortable with the directive as there are already a slew of other options for KYC including its NIN and BVN services which many Nigerians still have trouble accessing. It’s questionable why social media handles would be necessary, given that only 31.6 million Nigerians—about 16% of the entire population—have access to social media.

Read also : Afreximbank Launches Insurance Subsidiary to Support Intra-African Trade

Over the weekend, there were concerns within the social media space that this is another form of government control and it may get uglier than this. With several Nigerians imprisoned and targeted by government officials for their online presence, many Nigerians have tagged the move as yet another move by the government to curtail social media. 

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry