The National Commissioner for the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB), Dr Vincent Olatunji, has described the mandate by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that financial institutions should obtain social media handles and other data of customers as needless.
This comes after the Central Bank of Nigeria recently issued a directive requiring financial institutions to collect customers’ social media handles, email addresses, phone numbers, residential addresses, and other relevant information. Released as part of its Customer Due Diligence Regulations 2023, the apex bank claims the measures “are designed to improve the ability of financial institutions to identify and monitor potential risks linked to customer activities.”
Olatunji who spoke on Channels Television Politics Today programme on Monday, said that the Agency had written to CBN on the non-necessity of the mandate.
Olatunji said: “One, there is what is called data minimisation. That is, you don’t collect more than for the purpose for which you want to use it. There is a limit to the level of data you must collect.
“Two, purpose limitation: what purpose? Why do you actually need somebody’s data. In this case, it is for financial transactions, The use of asking for their social media is not really necessary.
“We have done a letter to the CBN about what they have done because in data protection and privacy issue, there are some basic principles to follow when you want to collect citizens’ data,” Olatunji said.
Olatunji said if CBN’s intention was to make use of the data for public interest, as a regulator to monitor financial transactions, then the apex bank needed to follow necessary guidelines.
According to NDPB commissioner, one of such guidelines was to notify the customer, and clearly stating the purpose.
However, Olatunji said that, “ideally, that should not happen. We are engaging CBN on this. You don’t collect data more than what you need, so there is no point in collecting such data. So, we will definitely take them up on it and work with them and look at the best solution out of it.”