Court upholds CBN’s rule on gathering clients’ social media usernames

The Federal High Court in Lagos has ruled that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s regulation, which mandates financial institutions to collect customers’ social media handles as part of the Know-Your-Customer procedure, does not violate the right to privacy.

The court dismissed a lawsuit filed by lawyer Chris Eke, who argued that the regulation was undemocratic and unconstitutional.

Eke also sought an injunction to prevent the CBN from enforcing the regulation.

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The CBN, in response, challenged the competence of the suit and argued that the regulation did not interfere with the applicant’s private life.

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba agreed with the CBN, stating that providing a social media handle is similar to providing an email address or phone number for contact purposes.

He emphasized that having a social media account implies a willingness to be publicly visible in terms of communication, making it unreasonable to consider the regulation a breach of privacy.