Dr. Vincent Olatunji, the National Commissioner of Nigeria Data Protection Bureau, has expressed his view that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) does not need to request the social media handles of bank customers’ data.
Olatunji made this statement during an interview on Channels Television, which was monitored by News About Nigeria on Monday.
In the recently enacted Data Protection Act signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Olatunji emphasized that its primary objective is to safeguard the privacy rights of all Nigerians.
This statement comes in light of the CBN’s latest Due Diligence Regulations 2023 report, which mandates banks to acquire customers’ social media handles.
According to Olatunji, the recently enacted Data Protection Act, signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, aims to safeguard the privacy rights of every Nigerian.
“The whole idea of data protection law is to protect all the rights, freedom and interest of Nigerians who are data subjects.
“We have written a letter to the Central Bank of Nigeria concerning the new regulation mandating banks to collect customers’ social media handles for identification.
“Collecting citizens’ social media handles is not necessary.
“If that will happen under public interest, yes, there are some guidelines they must follow.
“There should be a way of informing banks’ customers on the reason for data collection.
“We will find out why the regulations came up; we will let them know the implications of the law. According to global best practices, you don’t collect more data than you need; we are going to take CBN up on this”, he stated.
