The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said only 57.4 million Nigerians have Bank Verification Number (BVN). The BVN was introduced as a means to uniquely identify customers of Nigerian banks, reduce fraud, and improve the efficiency of banking operations in the country. Since its introduction, the BVN has become an important requirement for opening and maintaining bank accounts in Nigeria.
Also, the apex bank said 7,500 BVNs have been watch listed for alleged fraudulent transactions. CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele made this disclosure in Calabar at the 34th seminar for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors.
Emefiele, who was represented by the Director Monetary Policy Department of the CBN, Dr Hassan Mahmoud, said: “With a total enrollment of 57,431,355 as at 31st March 2023, the BVN is supporting the development of credit profiles for banking customers, which will assist in improving access to credit for credit-worthy borrowers by banks.”
Emefiele stated that BVN has continued to feature in the bank’s Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements as part of plans to ease the constraint associated with poor identification of banking customers. The CBN, he said, will “continued to support the aggressive enrollment of prospective banking customers in the informal sector onto the BVN system”.
