Contrary to the claims by Deposit Money Banks (DMB) that there would be total restriction on accounts without Bank Verification Number (BVN), after the deadline today, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has clarified that account holders can still have access to cash transactions while the e-banking transactions would be restricted.

The BVN is an initiative of the CBN and the Bankers’ Committee, launched on February 14, 2014.  It is a unique identifier for each bank customer across the financial industry, making it possible to build and track customer financial history and activity.

The CBN had last year issued a directive to all banks to ensure that their customers register for BVN before June 30th, 2015, so as to protect all e-banking transactions from fraudulent attacks.

Meanwhile, the Apex bank has said there would be no extension of deadline and that enough time has been given to customers to enroll for the BVN in spite of the large number of customers yet to enrol.

There had been claims that 62 million bank accounts may face restriction for failure to register. Reacting to this, Ibrahim Muazu, director, corporate communications department, CBN, said this was an exaggeration. He noted that many individuals and corporates do have more than one account and some in two deposit money banks, for example current, savings, domiciliary among others.

“Holders and a person requires only one BVN linked to all his accounts in any number of banks”, he said in chat with reporters.

“Without BVN, you still have access to your cash but services/facilities (internet/mobile banking, loans etc) will have some restrictions”, Muazu said further.

Currently, only about 14 million out of about 76 million bank accounts have so far complied.

Seyi Ademosun, project manager, BVN, Nigerian Inter-bank Settlement Systems Plc (NIBSS) last week said the number of registered customers has been projected to increase to 20 million by the end of this month.

What bank customers must know about Bank Verification Number

The enrollment process for acquiring your BVN is simple.

Visit any branch of the bank you have an account with. Registration by proxy not acceptable.

Collect and fill the BVN enrollment form with all personal data about you.

Submit the completed form to a designated official at your bank, who would then transfer the information given into a computer data base.

The official will take your photograph and finger prints.

You will sign your signature that will be captured electronically into the data system.

A small temporary registration acknowledgement slip will be issued to you, followed by an email or SMS conveying a similar information.

A BVN identification card with a computer chip bearing your embedded personal information will be issued to you for collection at your designated bank branch.

BVN registration exercise is mandatory for all individual customers.

Registration must be completed on or before June 30, 2015.

After deadline, you may not be able to do any financial transaction in any bank in the Nigerian banking system as you will require your fingerprint for authentication.

BVN registration is for individual account holders for the meantime till further notice.

Registration in one bank covers all accounts the individual might have in all other banks.