Nigerian Government Orders All Bank Account Holders To Fill, Submit Self-Certification Forms

The Nigerian Government has directed all account holders in the country to obtain, complete and submit self-certification forms in their respective Financial Institutions.

The Government made this known via its Twitter page on Thursday night, explaining that the forms are required by the relevant financial institutions in line with the Income Tax Regulations 2019.

Failure to adhere to this instruction, the Government said would attract sanctions which may include monetary penalty or inability to operate the account.

“This is to notify the general public that all account holders in Financial Institutions (Banks, Insurance Companies, etc) are required to obtain, complete and submit Self – Certification Forms to their respective Financial Institutions.”

“Persons holding accounts in different financial institutions is required to complete & submit the form to each one of the institutions. The forms are required by the relevant financial institutions to carry out due diligence procedures in line with the Income Tax Regulations 2019.

“The self-certification form is in 3 categories: – Form for Entity – For Controlling Person (Individuals having controlling interest in a legal person, trustee, etc) – Form for individual.

“Failure to comply with the requirement to administer or execute this form attracts sanctions which may include monetary penalty or inability to operate the account. For more enquiries visit @firsNigeria website (http://firs.gov.ng) for more details.”

It is not yet clear how the self-certification process differs from the bank verification number (BVN) and national identification number (NIN).

The BVN is a prerequisite to owning a bank account and it is used to link all bank and pension accounts owned by an individual.

The NIN is also another form of identification introduced by the federal government and is a prerequisite for getting an international passport.

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) currently harmonising the NIN and BVN and has set a five-year target to register all Nigerians after a $430 million World Bank loan for the Nigeria digital identification for development project.

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has said that Nigeria would have been in trouble by now if his government hadn’t forced unemployed Nigerians to go into agriculture.