The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in collaboration with all Nigerian Banks has introduced the Bank Verification Number (BVN) as a unique identification number for all Bank customers. CBN have advised Bank customers in Lagos to enroll and obtain their BVN. This exercise has gone live in selected Bank branches in Lagos. This is the first phase of the countrywide roll out. In view of this, all Nigerian Banks have their headquarter servers configured, deployed and tested, and their staff trained in preparation for the enrolment and verification of end users who are all Bank customers.

The Bank Verification Number (BVN) gives each Bank customer a unique identity across the Nigerian Banking industry. This can be used for easy identification and verification of Bank customers. The BVN initiative is part of the overall policy of the financial inclusion policy of the Financial Sector Strategy (FSS) agenda of ensuring Nigeria becomes one of the top 20 largest economies in the world by 2020.

The Enrollment Process:
Commenting on the enrollment process, the Managing Director of NIBSS, who doubles as the Head of the BVN Project Management team, Mr. Ade Shonubi said, “the enrolment process is simple and easy”. A bank customer will be required to walk into any of the selected bank branches; fill and submit the BVN Enrolment Form; present self for data capturing (such as Fingerprint, facial Image, etc.) Thereafter, an acknowledgment slip with the transaction ID will be issued to the individual. Within 24hours the system confirms the enrollment and a unique BVN is generated. The customer will immediately receive an SMS notification with the BVN.

He further explained that in order to ensure an efficient implementation, a phased rollout approach is being adopted beginning in Lagos. Biometric data capture machines have been deployed to about 1000 bank branches in Lagos, to date over 16,000 BVNs have been issued; At full roll out, 10,000 enrolment sets will be deployed across 5,000 Bank branches nation-wide

This enrollment process is done only once and your BVN will be linked to all your Bank accounts across Nigeria Banks.

“The BVN solution is to ensure accountability, protect Bank customers’ account from unauthorized access, reduce exposure to fraud, check identity theft, enhance credit advancement to Bank customers, and also encourage financial inclusion.”

This initiative addresses issues of identity theft and ensures that your bank accounts is protected from unauthorized access,, thus reducing your exposure to fraud. This solution will promote a safe and sound financial system in Nigeria, especially as it will keep records of suspected fraudulent individuals in the banking system.

It will make life and banking operations easy for bank customers as BVN is accepted as a means of identification across all banks in Nigeria. This will improve speed of service and reduce queues in banking halls.

At the point of enrolment individuals shall be required to submit an acceptable means of identification, and update their information at the bank branch physically.

Customers of banks will be required to enroll within a fixed period after which they shall no longer be able to operate their bank accounts.

www.monitor9ja.com

This is a good move. I hope ATM machines will soon be improved upon whereby customers would be able to use fingerprints instead of pin numbers!