The Central Bank of Nigeria has mandated Financial Institutions to obtain the social media handle, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, residential addresses, and more of their customers.

This forms part of its new customer due diligence regulations and is in a bid to further deepen the identification process in the banking system. The apex bank disclosed this in its newly released ‘Central Bank of Nigeria (Customer Due Diligence) Regulations, 2023’ document.

The CBN stated that its new regulation was created to provide additional customer due diligence measures for financial institutions under its regulatory purview.

It noted, “To provide additional customer due diligence measures for financial institutions under the regulatory purview of the Central Bank of Nigeria to further their compliance with relevant provisions of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act (MLPPA), 2022, Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act (TPPA), 2022, 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, 2022 (CBN AML, CFT and CPF Regulations) and international best practices.