14 million bank customers have been captured for BVN, says NIBSS

The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Plc on Wednesday said 14 million bank customers nationwide have enrolled for the Bank Verification Number (BVN).
Mr Seyi Adenmosun, NIBSS BVN’s Project Manager, disclosed this in Lagos at the Euro Finance 5th Conference on Treasury, Risk and Cash Management in West Africa.
Adenmosun said 14 million bank customers had enrolled for the BVN launched by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through the Bankers’ Committee on Feb. 14, 2014.
BVN is for biometric registration of all bank customers in the country which has a deadline of June 30.

He said that the figure would likely hit 20 million before the deadline, noting that banks’ weekly BVN had increased to 900,000 weekly against 400,000 witnessed in the past few months.
Adenmosun said that the figure was only for bank customers residing in the country, adding that Nigerians in Diaspora were not included in the ongoing BVN.
He said that plans were on the way for an enrolment of BVN for customers of banks in Diaspora, noting that the organisation and the CBN would work out the modalities.
Adenmosun said that NIBSS would collaborate with an international agency with presence across the world for the initiative, saying the procedures would be made public when approved by the apex bank.
He said NIBSS had deployed more biometric terminals in all the banks across the country to boost BVN initiative and ensure easy access.
Adenmosun, however, called on customers who were yet to embrace the exercise to do so before the June 30 deadline.
He said NIBSS had produced BVN cards for customers that registered on or before March 2014, stressing that customers should pick up their cards at the various banks where they enrolled for the BVN.
Adenmosun disclosed that customers BVN numbers in the near future would be included in their various bank chips for safety reasons and to eliminate fraud.
The BVN, he said, was introduced to ascertain the number of account holders in the country and avoid double counting of customers by banks.
Adenmosun said that the BVN would reduce fraud in the banking industry and ensure easy access to credit because issues with identity theft and fraud would be reduced to the barest minimum.
He said that the biometric authentication was meant to address the safety of customers’ funds and avoid losses through compromise of Personal Identification Numbers (PIN).