The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has been sued by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, over the bank’s recent directive to commercial banks in the country to obtain customers’ social media handles.

The CBN issued the directive to commercial and money banks earlier this month, saying it’s necessary for the purpose of identifying their customers.

What this means, according to those familiar with the apex bank guidelines, is that the CBN wants to be able to monitor bank customers through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social platforms.

Not a few Nigerians have kicked against the directive, citing for instance how it violates their rights to privacy, even though the CBN said the order is in line with the provisions of Section 6 of its Customer Due Diligence Reg­ulations, 2023.

But SERAP in a suit it filed against the apex bank said the directive violates the privacy of customers, and that there’s no legal ground for such.

According to the suit filed at the Federal High court in Lagos, the rights group is seeking an order to direct and compel the CBN to withdraw the directive issued to commercial banks on June 20, 2023.

SERAP is seeking “an order of manda­mus to compel the CBN to de­lete the unlawful provisions of Section 6 of its Customer Due Diligence Regulations, 2023 for being inconsistent with Section 39 of the Nigerian constitution 1999 (as amend­ed) and Article 9 of the Afri­can Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

“An order restraining the CBN from carrying out or giving effect to the unlawful provisions of Section 6 of its Customer Due Diligence Reg­ulations, 2023 directing banks and other financial institu­tions to obtain information from customers’ social media handles.

“The mandatory requirement of social media handles or addresses of cus­tomers does not serve any legitimate aim. Such infor­mation may be used to unjus­tifiably or arbitrarily restrict the rights to freedom of ex­pression and privacy.”

SERAP insists that “unless the reliefs sought are granted, the CBN will imple­ment and enforce the unlawful directive in contravention of citizens’ rights to freedom of expression and privacy.

“There are other means of identification such as pass­port, driver’s licence, Bank Verification Number (BVN), and Tax Identification Num­ber (TIN), which banks and other financial institutions al­ready require their customers to provide.

“The additional require­ment of obtaining details of a customer’s social media han­dle or address fails to meet the requirements of legality, necessity, and proportionality.

“The facts that there are sufficient means of identifica­tion for CBN, banks and other financial institutions to rely on to meet the requirement of Know Your Customer also heighten concerns of over­reach, and confer far-reaching discretion on banks and finan­cial institutions.”

The suit filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers, Ko­lawole Oluwadare and Ms. Blessing Ogwuche, also read in part: “Obtaining infor­mation on customers’ social media handles or addresses as means of identification is more intrusive than necessary.

“According to Section 6(a) (iv) of the CBN Regulations, banks and other financial in­stitutions ‘shall identify their customer and obtain infor­mation on the social media handle of the customer.’ Sec­tion 6(b)(iii) contains similar provision.

“The purported mandatory requirement would inhibit Ni­gerians from freely exercising their human rights online. If ob­tained, such information may also be misused for political and other unlawful purposes.

“The CBN regulations and directive to banks and other financial institutions would impermissibly restrict the constitutional and interna­tional rights to freedom of ex­pression, privacy and victims’ right to justice and effective remedies.

“Requiring social media handles or addresses of cus­tomers as a means of identi­fication would have a dispro­portionate chilling effect on the effective enjoyment by Nigerians of their rights to freedom of expression and privacy online.

“The requirement of necessity implies an assess­ment of the proportionality of the grounds, with the aim of ensuring that the excuse of ‘regulations on customer due diligence’ is not used as a pretext to unduly intrude upon the rights to freedom of expression and privacy.

“The CBN regulation does not demonstrate how the use of social media handle or ad­dress as a means of identifica­tion would serve to improve banks and other financial institutions’ ability to imple­ment and comply with the laws and regulations relating to customer due diligence.

“The directive by the CBN, which does not in any event carry the force of law, also fails to provide any explanation as to how social media handles or addresses can facilitate com­pliance with regulations relat­ing to customer due diligence.

“Obtaining the details of customers’ social media han­dles or addresses would un­duly interfere with the rights to freedom of expression and privacy. It would also be dispro­portionate to any purported legitimate aim that the CBN seeks to achieve.”