BREAKING NEWS, Business
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The Central Bank of Nigeria clarifies that customers who have not done their Bank Verification Number will have their accounts restricted. The restriction will be lifted once they do the registration in their banks in the exercise which is still on
THE Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, on Tuesday, November 10, directed banks in the country to continue registering customers who did not meet the October 21, deadline for the Bank Verification Number, BVN. Ibrahim Mu’azu, director, corporate communications, CBN, said although the time frame given for the registration had lapsed, customers who are yet to be registered could still do so in order to remove the restrictions on their accounts.
He therefore advised the customers to insist on being registered by their banks, stressing that the deadline of October 31, 2015, did not in any way suggest an end to the registration. The clarification from the apex bank followed complaints by bank customers that their banks had turned them back from continuing the enrolment for the BVN due to the expiration of the deadline.
He said it would be improper for banks to turn back their customers from enrolling in the exercise. Mu’azu also observed that many customers focused on BVN enrolment alone, forgetting that there were two stages to the BVN process, adding that the first stage was to enrol for the BVN, after which customers are expected to link their BVN to all their bank accounts.
He said an individual could enrol for a BVN without necessarily having an existing bank account, stressing that such individuals could then submit the acquired BVN at the point of opening bank account(s) in any bank of their choice. He also said the process of linking BVN to bank accounts was now a one-stop shop to enable customers register and link their BVN from one location, irrespective of the banks in which they have accounts. All these, he said were aimed at making the process as seamless as possible.
The CBN had approved an extension of the exercise for Nigerian bank customers in the Diaspora. The bank also issued a statement clarifying the use of BVN for FOREX transactions. He explained that the BVN was neither a payment instrument nor an account number and therefore could not be used to access any account by unauthorised users.
The BDCs were only required to collect the BVN of customers for the purpose of validating the identity of customers as well as making periodic returns to the CBN. While noting that travellers from Nigeria had been submitting their BVN to buy foreign currencies from authorised dealers at the international airports, without complaints, the CBN spokesman questioned why submitting BVN to BDCs had become an issue.
Realnews gathered that giving the BVN to the BDCs will not in any way endanger anybody because it is not a pin number but only a means of identifying individuals. The Central bank of Nigeria wondered why people are afraid to give their BVN to BDC when they also give out their international passport details and driver’s license to travel agents, adding that the BVN does not have any information that will harm the interest of Nigerians.
— Nov 23, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT
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