For many Nigerians, losing a mobile phone or relocating is no longer just a minor inconvenience, it could mean losing complete access to their bank accounts.
A digital rights advocacy group, is now raising the alarm that rigid restrictions on linking phone numbers to Bank Verification Numbers, BVNs, could lock millions of citizens out of the financial ecosystem.
Imagine a market trader whose phone is stolen. Or a student relocating to an area with no network coverage. Even a worker forced to switch SIM cards just to stay connected.
Under current, rigid banking policies, these everyday scenarios could become financial nightmares. The Digicivic Initiative warns that millions of Nigerians risk losing access to essential financial services simply because they cannot easily update their linked phone numbers.
While the group acknowledges that fraud prevention and data protection are critical, they argue that security should not come at the expense of financial inclusion.
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They believe safeguarding accounts can be achieved without restricting users to a strict, one-time phone number update.
Instead, Digicivic is advocating for a more flexible, risk-based approach. This would allow citizens to update their records multiple times, provided they pass strict identity verification using stronger fraud detection and advanced monitoring systems to flag suspicious changes
The advocacy group is now calling on financial authorities to urgently review the new restrictions. They emphasise that regulatory policies must comply with data protection laws, which explicitly guarantee a citizen’s right to correct outdated or inaccurate personal information.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
