By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Customers has blamed the blocking of their accounts on banks saying the banks failed to link their Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) to their accounts as at when due.
Checks by InvestAdvocate on Tuesday shows that customers of most of the banks visited were bitter and embarrassed the way they have been treated. Those spoken to say they have since a long time ago done their BVN registration and filled the link forms; and each time they come to transact, the banks request for their BVN numbers which they furnish them and the transaction would be processed.
One Mr. Da Silva told InvestAdvocate in one of the banks visited name (withheld) that he has since the inception of the BVN registered and later completed the linkage form, “this is not the first time I have been transacting and each time I come they request I furnish them with my BVN before the transaction would be concluded, I’m embarrassed to receive a text message from them that I have differences in details I provided,” he said.
The text message reads thus: “ Dear Customer your BVN is not linked to your account due to differences in details. Kindly visit any of our branches to resolve,” the text message read.
Another customer (name withheld) said he has furnished details of his BVN to another bank he is using and even filled the BVN link form; but was surprised when he called his account officer to confirm if indeed his account has been linked; but he was advised to visit any of the branches to confirm.
According to the bank customer, he quickly drove to the nearest branch of his second bank; but was surprised to learn that despite the fact he has done his BVN registration for a long time and even filled the linkage form, his account in the bank was not linked. “We blame the banks for all of these, despite the fact we have undergone these processes of the BVN, they still have us embarrassed by blocking our accounts for a fault which is solely theirs,’ the customer lamented.
Further inquiries by InvestAdvocate showed that the bankers are guilty of negligence by not performing their duties until now; blaming it on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). “ We are sorry it’s not our fault; but that of the CBN who could not have a data base of accounts linked with their BVN and they directed us to just frozen people’s accounts so we did and now this is happening,’ the banker said.
InvestAdvocate can affirm that this is far from the truth; but a situation of banks failing to do their jobs as at when due.
One of the bankers confirmed to InvestAdvocate that she is just beginning to call only her clients with corporate accounts to come and link their accounts; but could not call the others with savings account because they are so many. ‘I’m only just beginning to call my clients with corporate accounts they are not as many as those with savings accounts; showing the list to InvestAdvocate,’ she said.
On further probing by InvestAdvocate on why she has refused to call the many savings account customers, “theirs is not as important as those with corporate accounts, we do not want our corporate account customers to feel embarrassed that their accounts has been blocked in the event they want to carry out their business; but for the savings accounts customers, when they come and discover their accounts has been blocked, they can quickly do it immediately in the banking hall,’ she said.
The Punch in its report on Wednesday affirmed that three (3) days after the expiration of the deadline set for bank customers to register and obtain their BVN, the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) disclosed that banks in the country have yet to link 6.6 million BVNs to bank accounts.
The report says the NIBSS, owned by the CBN and commercial banks in Nigeria are the technical organisation appointed by the Central Bank and Bankers’ Committee to be in charge of the BVN project.
According to the report, the NIBSS, in an emailed response to enquiries by the Punch correspondent on Tuesday, stated that only 14.4 million BVNs had been linked to bank accounts out of the total of 21 million BVN holders in the country.
“The organisation absolved itself of blame for the delay in linking the BVNs to bank accounts, saying only the banks had the details of their customers and could therefore link the numbers to the accounts,” the Punch report added.
