Recall the CBN last year, mandated all banks to ensure all bank account holders had properly linked their accounts to their respective BVN
Bank customers with registered Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) have grown to about 60.2 million few days to the expiration of the deadline issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Data published by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System, (NIBSS) has shown that the record of registered BVN increased by about 2.6% since the first announcement was made in September 2023.
The announcement led to a surge in BVN registration from 58.7 million registrations as of the time of the announcement (September 12, 2023) to the current figure – 60.2 million as recorded by NIBSS.
According to a 2023 report by Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA), 52% (28 million) of unbanked adults have completed their NIN registrations while about 5% (3 million) of banked adults do not have BVN or NIN.
This means about 3 million bank account holders risk losing their accounts if the registration and linkage are not complete by the deadline.
Recall the CBN last year, mandated all banks to ensure all bank account holders had properly linked their accounts to their respective BVN. The CBN had said the instruction was to straighten the ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) procedures in financial institutions.
Under the instructions, all Tier 1 bank accounts and wallets for individuals were mandated to have a BVN and/or NIN linkage. For Tier 2 bank accounts, accounts and wallets for individual accounts needed to have a BVN and NIN.
The CBN circular also instructed that by January 31, 2024, the BVN, NIN associated with all accounts must be electronically revalidated and that effective March 1, 2024, all funded accounts without BVN, NIN will be placed on ‘Post No Debit or Credit’.
The CBN further advised all executive compliance officers, chief compliance officers or heads of the compliance functions to acquaint themselves with the guidelines applicable to all institutions regulated by the CBN.
