The fight against corruption in Nigeria is becoming more systematic and quite a few bank customers could be caught in it inadvertently.
The recent Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regulatory framework for Bank Verification Number (BVN) operations and watchlist for the Nigerian banking industry mandates financial institutions to apply restrictions on accounts and BVNs associated with fraudulent activities.
As a result banks and other financial institutions have been mandated to report such activities to law enforcement agencies. Some banks have started updating their terms and conditions for opening and using accounts with them to reflect these changes and give them legal cover should they need to take action against some customers.
It is also possible to lose access to multiple accounts in different banks based on one of your accounts being frozen or flagged for fraud. The BVN simply links the other accounts to fraud and you may be liable to lose access to them.
While some parts of the regulations are not new, the effect of the new directive is that you could lose access to your account and your money based on the suspicion of fraud, not necessarily with concrete evidence. Therefore you need to be a lot more careful about your banking transactions and how you conduct business to avoid being negatively affected by the new regulations.