29.4m Customers Not on BVN Platform – CBN

Fri, Sep 4, 2015
By publisher
4 MIN READ

BREAKING NEWS, Business

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The Central Bank of Nigeria says banks are yet to fully capture the details of their customers numbering 29.4 million on the bank verification number platform as the October deadline for the exercise approaches

| By Anayo Ezugwu | Sep 14, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT |

AS the deadline for the registration of the Bank Verification Number, BVN, approaches, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has said that more than 29.4 million bank customers are yet to be captured in the on-going exercise across the country. Dipo Fatokun, director, banking and payment system, CBN, said out of the 48.4 million bank customers, only 19 million have so far registered for the BVN.

Fatokun who disclosed this in a presentation at the bi-monthly forum organised by the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria, FICAN, urged bank customers that are yet to register to do so before the October 31, deadline. He said, “As at last week, over 19 million bank customers have been issued BVN. What we are doing now is moving round the banks to see how they are doing and those that are complying. The campaign from the CBN is that Nigerians should go and enrol for the BVN that is why we are going to be very strict with the deadline. “Please, bank customers don’t have to wait till this date.”

With BVN there would no longer be a hiding place for fraudsters. “Why we have not caught anybody is because we have not got to the cut-off date. When we get to the cut-off date, any account that does not have BVN cannot receive and cannot take out money. “So, if you are a fraudster and you try to transfer money into an account that doesn’t have BVN, the system will reject it. Now, if you are a fraudster and you transfer money into an account that has BVN, then we know you. It is going to engender transparency in the banking industry.”

Fatokun also identified absence of a unique identifier, apathy and poor infrastructure as key challenges confronting e-payment system in the country. He hinted that the bank was picking up the pace to confront the identified challenges, including poor infrastructure to enhance smooth operation of the system. He said efforts are on to get rid of fraud arising from e-payment transactions.

According to him, the project identified agriculture, smart cities, health, transportation, hotels, entertainment, government flow, education and Consumer Bill Payment as well as direct debits as focus areas. He explained that the absence of a unique identifier in the banking industry has negative consequences on the growth of e-payments and that it was the need to resolve the challenge that prompted the CBN, in collaboration with the Bankers’ Committee to launch the BVN project.

The project, Fatokun said, will help build confidence of customers on the e-payment channels and enhance integrity of transactions. “The BVN initiative is aimed at protecting bank customers and further strengthening the Nigerian banking system by uniquely identifying all bank customers and acts as a stop-gap, prior to the full implementation of the National Identity Card system,” he said.

The CBN had on June 30 extended the deadline for the registration for BVN to October 31. The apex bank in a circular stated that it has come to their notice that the BVN registration has elicited tremendous interest from the Nigerian bank customers who crowded the banking halls in order to beat the deadline. In view of the foregoing, it became imperative for the banks to extend the timeline for all customers to have the BVN. The extension was expected to facilitate a smooth completion of the registration exercise as well as give Nigerian bank customers in the Diaspora, ample time to register.

The BVN, a CBN initiative, which was launched in February 2014, is being supported by the bankers’ committee. It is aimed at protecting bank customers and further strengthening the Nigerian banking system. It was among other things, introduced to address safety of customers’ funds, avoid losses through compromise of personal identification numbers and other criminal activities in the industry.

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