Uproar, Chaos as Banks Block Accounts Due to BVN

At least five million bank accounts were deactivated by Deposit Money Banks operating in the country on Saturday night following the October 31, 2015 deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for bank customers to register and obtain their Bank Verification Numbers, according to Punch Newspapers.

Elsewhere, the Vanguard Newspapers reported that millions of others customers were denied access to their bank accounts due to failure of banks to link their accounts to their Biometric Verification Number (BVN).

The affected customers were, among other things, barred from withdrawing cash and transferring funds through Automated Teller Machines, Internet banking platforms and over-the-counter in the banking halls.

According to Punch, the development created chaos in the banking halls across the country on Monday as angry customers besieged several branches to get their suspended accounts reactivated.

Long queues were seen in various banking halls when one our correspondents visited some branches in Lagos.

Similar situations were recorded in Abuja, Port Harcourt and other major cities across the country.

Findings showed that a significant number of the five million customers whose accounts were suspended had obtained their BVNs but failed to link it with their account numbers.

Branches of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and Access Bank Plc visited in Surulere, Yaba, Isolo and Oshodi in Lagos all had long queues of customers filling forms to verify their BVNs.

Majority of the customers expressed anger as they filled the verification forms given to them by bank officials.

Punch said that , some of the customers, who had obtained the BVNs but failed to link them up with the account numbers, had their accounts reactivated immediately.

But Vanguard reported that somebank customers that had obtained the BVN from one bank, and had submitted it to other banks where they also have accounts, discovered that their accounts in the other banks had been blocked.

According to Mr. Stanley Chima, “I had done my BVN through Access Bank, and submitted it to UBA last week. This morning I discovered the UBA account has been blocked, because it was yet to be linked to my BVN.”

He was one of the many customers that besieged banks’ branches across the country with similar problems.

A bank staff who spoke to Vanguard on condition of anonymity however blamed bank customers for the problem. She said that many customers did not submit their BVN for linkage to other accounts until last week, and the result was piles of BVN linkage request that could not be concluded as at the October 31st deadline.

CBN in a statement  said that with the expiration of the October 31 enrolment deadline, the CBN has directed that bank accounts of Nigeria residents without the BVN would henceforth be operated as ‘No customer initiated debit accounts until the account holders obtain and attach the BVNs to the accounts.

Mr. Ibrahim Mu’azu, director, Corporate Communications, CBN, explained that the extension was to enable customers in the Diaspora to complete the enrolment as well as link the BVN to their respective accounts.

 “However, ‘No customer initiated debit accounts until the account holders obtain and attach the BVNs to the accounts.

“This means that a customer may not be allowed to withdraw money from his or her account until the BVN has been acquired and linked to the account.”

The statement clarified that accounts of Nigeria residents without the BVN would continue to receive cash and electronic credit inflows, and would neither be deactivated nor confiscated.