The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has stated its readiness to increase the number of bank account holders enrolled on the Bank Verification (BVN) System from over 40 million to 100 million in the next 5 years.
According to the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NBISS), there are over 40 million active bank accounts currently linked with BVN.
BVN enrolment is said to curtail issues with poor identification of bank customers on the availability of credit, principally those in the informal sector.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had disclosed that BVN Premium would cover customers that can provide the 18 basic requirements for a complete BVN enrolment, while the BVN Lite would require minimal documentation like name and phone number for bank customers that reside in rural areas and wouldn’t be able to meet the full requirements. He added that the classification was aimed at reducing financial exclusion rate.