Customers, Banks In A Ding-Dong Over BVN Deadline
The Central Bank of Nigeria, through the
Bankers’ Committee and Nigeria Interbank-
Settlement System (NIBSS), had introduced the
Bank Verification Number (BVN) project in
February 2014, with the aim of ensuring
unique identity for all bank customers and
other users of financial services in the
country.
The process, which required individual
banks to capture the biometrics and
facial marks of each customer, would
subsequently be aggregated at the NIBSS
centralised platform, to serve the
industry as a whole. But to arrive at this
point, a customer with accounts in more
than one bank would only need to be
captured in the biometric exercise once
and when the unique identity number
(BVN) is given, the customer would go to
other banks where he/she has accounts
to link them with the number.
The project, described as a “silver bullet”
to taming the multifaceted banking
frauds in the country, was specifically
scripted to identify a customer based on
physiological or behavioural attributes
like fingerprint, facial features,
signature and unique number. It was
first faced with the challenge of who is
in charge or control of data captured
among government agencies. It was also
beset by criticism over assessed duplicity
of the same exercise by other
government agencies.
At the expiration of the initial 18 months
after the launch (June 30, 2015), which
the regulator also warned of possible
sanctions for non-compliance, bank
customers numbering in millions
appeared reluctant in registering, but in
a last minute rush to get registered, there
were commotions and stampede in
banking halls across the country. That
necessitated the call for the extension of
the deadline by four months to October
31, 2015.
The Managing Director of NIBSS, Ade
Shonubi, said the exercise, while
strategic to the economy, is also
important to banking industry
operators, as banks have invested more
than N8 billion in the entire processes so
far.
Several challenges that necessitated the
approach, which stakeholders said is
innovative, include electronic fraud,
multiple identities and dubious
transactions with accounts that lack
adequate Know-Your-Customer
principle.
Presently tensions are mounting among
banks’ customers over the fate of their
accounts, as some are yet to be
registered in the exercise; others have
registered but cannot access their
accounts; while millions that have
registered are yet to link their other
accounts; still many that have linked
their various accounts are still
complaining of transactional and access
hitches to their accounts.
Few days to the deadline, CBN mandated
all banks and licensed Bureaux de
Change (BDCs) operators to demand for
BVN, as part of the requirement for the
sale of foreign exchange to their
customers.
Already, this has generated a new
controversy some customers are now
reluctant in disclosing their BVN to
authorised dealers and buyers because
of claims that there are attendant risks
to the disclosure.
But the Director of Corporate
Communications Department, CBN,
Alhaji Ibrahim Mu’azu, said
the adoption of BVN as a condition for
the purchase of foreign exchange is
expected to reduce the incidence of
multiple purchases, round tripping and
illicit transfer of funds, facilitate
enforcement of authorised limits of forex
sales to end users, sanitize the retail
segment of the market and engender
policies that will facilitate better
allocation of the forex, based on genuine
demands.
“The BVN is neither a payment
instrument nor an account number and
therefore, could not be used to access
any account by unauthorised users. The
banks, BDC operators and even
regulators use the BVN to validate the
identity of a customer using some
biometric information such as finger
prints and photograph obtained at the
point of enrolment.
“The BVN provides the unique identity of
each customer for the purpose of
achieving effective KYC principle and
fraud prevention. The provision of BVN
by customers at the point of forex
purchase or for any legitimate banking
transaction with any of the above named
institutions does not attract any security
risk. Rather it protects the customer
against identify theft,” he said.
Earlier, there was concern that the
verification of the BVN before forex
transactions is consummated would
bring tardiness and delay in the process.
But in a seeming quick response, NIBSS
unveiled a code- *565*0#, a short code
that is operational in Etisalat, MTN and
Airtel networks, with the mobile phone
number submitted during the
registration, which would instantly
receive status confirmation at the cost of
N20.
Since October 31, when the second
deadline for “voluntary” compliance was
concluded, banks have been enforcing
the sanctions, which is basically blocking
of access to the account until the account
holder complies. Still, more worries have
emerged over complaints of non-account
linkage, even weeks after compliance.
Mu’azu had said that “while it can be
said that some substantial efforts have
been made in terms of enrollment and
successes recorded, what is left
therefore, is for the remaining account
holders to get their accounts linked to
BVN.
“The point needs to be stressed here that
it is not enough to just enroll for BVN.
The process is duly concluded only when
all accounts owned by bank customers
are linked to their respective BVNs.”
According to the Nigeria Interbank
Settlement System (NIBSS), about 14.4
million accounts or little above that in
the last few days have only been linked
among the over 50 million active
accounts in the industry.
CBN had estimated that given the
assessed tradition of multiple accounts’
holding by average Nigerian, which was
put at two or three per account holder,
there might be over 50 million active
accounts that possibly have been
involved in the BVN project.
But lamentations have marred the take
off of BVN in banking transactions, with
some banks’ customers baring fangs over
the lack of connectivity after they had
long gone through the process of
completing the BVN registration.
The NIBSS spokesperson, Lilian Phido,
said her agency, which hosts the
platform for the project, is not to blame
and advised that “customers should go
back to their respective banks to sort it
out. The linking is done at the bank.
Once they contact the platform, you can
be sure that it will be linked and the
customers would have unhindered access
to their accounts.”
However, it still looks gloomy at the
moment for many Nigerians in the
Diaspora, who number in tens of
millions, as they continue to search and
wait for identifiable and nearest centre
to register for the unique code.
Presently, there are only 12 countries
beside Nigeria (United Kingdom, United
Arab Emirates, South Africa, Malaysia,
China, United States of America, Canada,
France, Italy, Brazil, India and
Australia) where the exercise is ongoing,
with 21 centres cumulatively.
So far, there is estimated 12,000
Nigerians in Diaspora that have taken
advantage of the BVN registration
centres created outside the country.
But Mr. Ken from Atlanta, United States
of America, he said that he has assumed
the role of the Central Bank of Nigeria
over there, campaigning and organising
other Nigerians in readiness for any
identifiable centre to no avail.
“The last time we heard about an address
in Atlanta, it almost became a scene and
we were more disappointed by the fact
that nobody for that purpose was found
there,” he said.
The noble objectives articulated in BVN
initiative has “set sail” and can only
reach the desired destination with
cooperation, collaboration and
sustainability in view from all the
stakeholders. The initial hitches are real,
but should not be a surprise. The
surprise would however, be the response
from the regulatory authorities.
Whatever, everything about BVN
deserves the support of all.
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