BEVERLY HILLS, October 29, (THEWILL) – At least 20.8 million Nigerians with active bank accounts have enrolled in the Bank Verification Number (BVN) as at October 25th, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said Thursday.
The Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr. Ibrahim Mu’azu, announced this on the sideline of the Fiscal Liquidity Assessment Committee workshop on Thursday in Abuja.
Mu’azu said that the CBN had no plans to extend the deadline of the exercise.
He said that the current figure was obtained from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS).
“While it can be said that some substantial efforts have been made in terms of enrollment and successes recorded, what is left is for the remaining account holders to get their accounts linked to BVN.
“Furthermore, Nigerian banks’ customers in the Diaspora have taken advantage of more facilities provided for enrollment in more locations abroad.
“The updated information on the locations for the enrollment of Nigeria banks’ customers in the Diaspora can be accessed through the NIBSS website,” he said.
Mu’azu said that to show that most people complied with the apex bank’s directive, there was less pressure in the banking halls across the country even as the deadline was drawing to a close.
“The point needs to be stressed here that it is not enough to just enroll for BVN. The process is duly concluded only when all accounts owned by a bank customer are linked to his or her BVN.
“From the foregoing, it becomes clear that the insinuation of about 32 million accounts holders yet to enroll was simply a misrepresentation that fails to take into consideration the multiple accounts holding habit of most Nigerians,” the official said.
The CBN in collaboration with all banks in Nigeria launched the scheme on Feb. 14, 2014.
It is a centralised biometric identification system for the banking industry.
It aims at addressing issues of identity theft, fraud; helps to fish out blacklisted customers; reduces queues in banking halls and standardises efficiency of banking operations.
The CBN said the BVN was to encourage banks to grant loans to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and students in the country.
