5 Days BVN Deadline, Banks Enrol 21m Customers

Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) said that about 21 million bank customers have enrolled for the Biometric Verification Number (BVN), five days to the October 31st deadline for enrolment. 

Mr. Ade Shonubi, managing director/chief executive, NIBSS, also disclosed that 12,000 bank customers in Diaspora have so far been enrolled for the BVN.

He said that “We have about 21 million people enrolled for the BVN; we have over 12,000 enrolled in the Diaspora as at today. “We are beginning to see the queues building up as people are rushing to beat the deadline. We are hopeful that at least 80 percent of the banking industry would have complied by the end of October.

We have about 45 million active accounts, some people obviously have more than one account, so it is not likely we would have 45 million people enrolled on BVN.” Speaking further on the enrolment of customers in Diaspora, he said, “As at now we have about 12 centres that have been opened around the world. We expect in the next few days another five or six centres will be opened in places like Australia, Malasia etc.

“After the October 31st deadline, their (Diaspora customers) account would not be closed, but they would not be allowed to operate it, and once they do the enrolment and have a BVN, the account will be then activated”. Addressing shareholders at the company’s AGM, Chairman of NIBSS and Deputy Governor, Operations Directorate, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Alhaji Suleiman Barau, provided update on the various efforts of the company to boost adoption of electronic payment.

He said, “As part of strategies to drive e-payment transaction volume and further reduce transaction cost for banks, the Company commenced NIP/NEFT transaction volume discount regime for all banks who apart from being major customers are also esteemed shareholders of the Company. Consequently a total sum of Nl64.89million was paid to 21 banks as NIP/NEFT transaction volume discount during the financial year.

“To further encourage the use of POS as an e-payment channel, the CBN introduced the bank driven Electronic Payment Incentive Scheme (EPIS) Refund in November 2014 with NIBSS assigned the responsibility of  implementation. A total sum of N234.02million was paid to 1,497,970 unique card holders through 21 banks as at June 30, 2015. “Gross earnings for the year were N6.20billion, representing 21% growth over the N5.13billion recorded in prior year.