You can download the form here – a copy of the self-certification form (pdf). As you can see, the government is not deceiving anyone. This is just a pure class of communication mistake. The form is clearly written “non-resident” which means it does not apply to Nigerians. They sent a copy to us to assuage Nigerians who are already running to withdraw money from their bank accounts. Please this is under control – government is not coming after your deposit. Hope we learn from this as a nation. If this is not well managed, some banks could have issues. Share with others.
For the background news on the form, read here.
On Thursday, Nigerian government, through its social media pages, ordered Nigerians to obtain and fill Self-Certification forms in their respective financial institutions.
The order said the forms are required by relevant financial institutions to carry out income tax regulations.
“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
Update: Who is a Non-Resident in Nigeria?
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From my understanding, Non-Residents should be seen as Non-Nigerians who have financial relationships in other countries. It would have meant anyone not living full time in Nigeria as they have in the U.S. and other advanced nations but the problem here is that Nigeria does not have data to know that a Nigerian who lives in New York but visiting and operating an account in First Bank Plc with his Nigerian PASSPORT is non-resident.
The bank will assume the person is a resident citizen. And because most diasporas open these accounts with their Nigerian passports, Nigeria and our banks cannot figure this out. So, at the end, the non-residents will APPLY MAINLY to others with non-Nigerian passports. Sure, there are Nigerians who run diaspora bank accounts. I do not think that is the target here since the government expects the affected people to go to their banks to complete the forms. Possibly, they would be verified with BVN. You will not expect someone to leave London to travel to Lagos to do that!
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Thank you prof, Tekedia is my first choice platform to get intellectual insights on trending economic and socio political issues. Thumbs-up to you impeccable job. As regards the self certification form, i am still not able to reconcile the content of the form and the tag that says ‘for non resident individuals’ because it apoears its for everybody. I’ll really appreciate more explanation from anyone thanks.
From my understanding, Non-Residents should be seen as Non-Nigerians who have financial relationships in other countries. It would have meant anyone not living full time in Nigeria as they have in the U.S. and other advanced nations but the problem here is that Nigeria does not have data to know that a Nigerian who lives in New York but visiting and operating an account in First Bank Plc with his Nigerian PASSPORT is non-resident.
The bank will assume the person is a resident citizen. And because most diasporas open these accounts with their Nigerian passports, Nigeria and our banks cannot figure this out. So, at the end, the non-residents will APPLY MAINLY to others with non-Nigerian passports. Sure, there are Nigerians who run diaspora bank accounts. I do not think that is the target here since the government expects the affected people to go to their banks to complete the forms. Possibly, they would be verified with BVN. You will not expect someone to leave London to travel to Lagos to do that!
The constitutional lawyers can help here.
hullo. I want to highly qualified certificate in kabba kogi