Banks will begin to issue Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) to customers next month through 1000 branches in Lagos.

Assistant Director and Head of External Communications Division, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Isaac Okoroafor disclosed this in Lagos last week.

The Bank Verification Numbers based on biometric identity of the customers was launched February 14 this year with a pilot phase involving banks’ staff in 48 branches across the country.

Okoroafor, who spoke alongside members of the publicity subcommittee for the project, said, “The process started the day the scheme was launched. By 1st of March the platform was deployed to all the head offices of banks. We also said by April we would start enrolling banks’ staff, and this is on.

It has been extended to 42 of the 48 branches designated in the pilot phase. By end of May, we would begin to enrol members of the public on the programme. This is how it would start, like we did for the cashless programme, we intend to start the public rollout here in Lagos with 1000 banks’ branches.

Lagos has about 1401 branches; we are starting with at least 1000 branches.   We would start the enrolment of account holders, look at the challenges, how we can tackle them, and the wisdom we get from there will help us in planning how to roll out outside Lagos.

On his part, Mr. Oluseyi Adenmosun, Head of the Biometric Project, Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), Mr. Oluseyi Adenmosun said that the purpose of the Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) is to provide unique identity to each bank customer.

He said, “We want to be able to identify account holders across the industry. Today we do not know if Oluseyi Adenosun who banks with First Bank is the same person that is called Seyi or Oluwaseyi, or Oluwaseyi Johnson Adenosun that banks with FCMB. So Seyi can bank with ten banks but the way he has been profiled in these banks will be different and as far as each bank is concerned they are dealing with a different person.

There is nothing overarching that says this Seyi that is in this place is the same Seyi that is in that place. So the Bankers Committee felt it was necessary, given the spate of frauds, given the cashless policy, given the idealistic direction that CBN was going, to find something that would hold everything together.

You cannot be doing electronic transactions, cashless transactions, and we can’t identify you, we can’t trace you. So this project was introduced to provide uniqueness.

Source: Vanguard (by Babajide Komolafe)