By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday said it has finalised the guidelines for enrolment of Bank Verification Number (BVN) of Nigerian bank customers in the Diaspora.
This is contained in a circular dated August 18, 2015 with reference number BPS/DIR/GEN/05/009 and signed by Dipo Fatokun, director, banking and payment system department of the CBN.
The CBN said Nigerian bank customers in Diaspora could present themselves for the enrolment of the BVN without traveling to Nigeria.
It said the first option is for the bank customers abroad to present themselves to the offshore branches/subsidiaries of any Nigerian bank where such facilities have been made available for the enrolment of the BVN.
“The deployment of scanners and other devices to these locations have started in earnest,” the CBN added.
The nation’s apex bank directed Nigerian banks abroad to capture necessary data, generate a BVN and communicate same to customers. Thereafter, the customers are expected to forward the assigned BVN to their banks for linkage to their accounts.
“A web portal to achieve this linkage to bank accounts has been developed and deployed, while the process of such linkage will be made available by NIBSS to all those enrolled abroad,” the circular stated.
The second option the CBN says is the engagement of a consulting firm Online Integrated Solutions (OIS) to help establish stations for data capture and generation of BVN at a fee of GBP 30(thirty pounds or its equivalent)per transaction, payable by the customer.
According to the CBN, the company is expected to capture necessary data for online transmission to NIBSS who would thereafter generate the BVN and communicate same to the customer.
The CBN advised customers to approach OIS for the BVN, where the communication from NIBSS is not received within 48 hours after the enrolment.
The plan is to rollout this operation in the twelve (12) locations in the first phase. These locations are; London, Leicester, New York, Atlanta, Washington DC, Houston, Johannesburg, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Dubai and New Delhi.
“The second phase will include locations with a high demand for services, based on online feedback, while remote locations with lower concentrations of Nigerians will be accommodated through scheduled sessions for defined periods,” the CBN affirmed.
