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The total number of customers with bank verification number in Nigeria is now 51.72 million
| By Anayo Ezugwu | Apr 3, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT |
AS at February 2017, the total number of bank customers that have Bank Verification number, BVN, across the country has increased to 51.72 million.
A report on the website of the Nigeria Interbank Settlement Systems, NIBSS, showed that as at January 2017, the number of bank customers that had obtained their BVN stood at 50.92 million.
The data showed that on a monthly basis, the enrolment on BVN has continued to improve steadily. For instance, as at January last year, 30.13 million customers had gotten their BVN, compared with the 2.24 million it was as at January 2015.
According to the report, enrolment increased further to 31.11 million as at February last year (2.71 million as at February 2015); 32.19 million as at March last year (3.34 million as at March 2015); 33.63 million as at April 2016 (7.71 million April 2015); 35.44 million as at May last year (9.2 million as at May 2015); and 36.12 million as at June 2016 (12.49 million as at June 2015).
The data showed that enrolment on the BVN platform sustained its increase as at July last year, when it climbed to 36.79 million registered bank customers (12.73 million as at July 2015); 46.39 million in August 2016 (13.74 million in same month in 2015); 47.35 million in as at September 2016 (14.58 million as at September 2015); and 48.14 million customers as at October last year. BVN enrolment was also at 49.14 million as at November last year and 49.99 million as at last December.
The BVN has been very helpful in the fight against corruption in the country, especially since the federal government whistle-blowing policy was unveiled last December.
The NIBSS data showed that the total number of bank accounts was 95 million as at November 2016. But the total active bank accounts were 64.13 million as at November.
Godwin Emefiele, governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, recently explained that the BVN solution would stimulate banking transactions and also improve access to credit by customers. Emefiele noted that with the BVN, the banking industry would begin to see the opening up of consumer credit opportunities. “We are saying that with this project people who want to buy cars, do mortgage will be possible with the kind of data that would be fed into the centralised system and it should be possible for you to access bank credit easily.”
The CBN in collaboration with the Bankers’ Committee had introduced the BVN on February 14, 2014. The initiative was aimed at ensuring unique identity for all bank customers and other users of financial services in the country by the use of the customers’ biometrics as means of identification.
The BVN is a number that enables one person to have a single identity in the banking system. It basically ensures that a customer’s identity is not stolen. It has been described as a ‘silver-bullet solution’ to many of the challenges in the banking industry. A customer is only expected to register at one bank, irrespective of the number of accounts he has.
Certain forms of identification are easy to counterfeit, which had led to a rise in identity theft today. But by making use of the BVN biometrics technologies, the banking industry will enjoy enhanced security, providing consumers with better security that protects their money, financial information and identity.
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