CBN Proposes 10-digit Bank Account Number format

One and half years after continued upsurge in the volume of automated direct credits cleared through bankers clearing house, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has mandated banks to create and maintain a Nigerian Uniform Bank Account Number Standards (NUBAN) code, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered.
The non-uniform structure of bank account numbers among Nigerian banks as against the Uniform Bank Account Number scheme, which is best practice resulted in an upsurge in the volume of Automated Direct Credits (ACH).
According to the apex bank, every bank is required to create and maintain a NUBAN code for every customer account (current, savings, etc) in its customer records database, and the NUBAN code should be the only Account Number to be used at all interfaces with a bank customer.
The proposed NUBAN is a 10-digit Bank Account Number format, with the structure: 999999999 - Account Serial Number and 9 - A Check Digit constructed to support a modulus check, which enables the presenting bank to perform checks. The Check Digit is derived from an algorithm that operates on a combination of the 3-digit CBN-assigned Bank Code and the 9-digit Account Serial Number, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered.
This followed the directive of the Federal Government to the effect that all Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government should replace all forms of cheque payments with electronic payments as from January 01, 2009.
In this light, the Bankers Clearing House has witnessed an upsurge in the volume of ACH (automated direct credits) cleared through the system since February, 2009.
Most banks expend a lot of energy and time to correct account numbers before uploading inward items just because their core banking applications work with too long bank account numbers.
It is believed that if the Nigeria banking industry implements a Uniform Bank Account Number scheme, many of the electronic payment problems currently experienced would be resolved.
A uniform account number structure scheme would enable both the employer and the
presenting bank validate account numbers and this would greatly reduce the volume of items returned unapplied due to wrong account numbers and reduce the incidence of posting to wrong account numbers, by the receiving bank.
This would also reduce the cost of operations and increase efficiency of ACH processing by banks.