The Central Bank of Nigeria has revealed that no fewer than 31 million account customers have been captured in its Bank Verification Number (BVN) exercise.
The CBN Director, Banking and Payment System, Dipo Fatokun, noted that the bank has also linked a total of 43,959,282 bank accounts in the BVN project.
As at December 2017, the implementation of the BVN project recorded 31,426,091 registered BVNs and 43,959,282 accounts linked with it.
According to Dipo, the BVN has helped to increase deterrent controls on financial transactions and reduce or mitigate fraud risk and identity theft. He also noted that it has created avenues for people who cannot write a regular signature to make financial transactions, thus, facilitating financial inclusion.
It has also helped in the provision of the unique identity for customers in other areas such as credit check, and non-repudiation of transactions.
In February 2014, the CBN in collaboration with the Bankers’ Committee launched the BVN Project with a biometric solution, as a unique identifier for all bank customers.
Following the expiration of the deadline for enrolment exercise by bank customers, the Federal Government got a court order on the temporary forfeiture of such cash within two weeks unless the owners justify their ownership of such accounts.
This, however, did not go down well with the commercial banks who in a joint suit challenged and later got an interim order which set aside the earlier ruling on the forfeiture.