When the Apex Bank of Nigeria introduced the Bank verification project in February 2014, not many customers were aware, or even took it serious. Many in fact waved it aside as one of those things which would fade away as quickly as they sprang up. By the last week of May 2015, a deadline was issued to all account holders to get registered before June 30, 2015 or have their accounts blocked and lose access to all bank services as well as foreign exchange. By this time, most people started making conscious attempts to get registered and updated. This last minute rush was, however, unsuccessful for most for them. Since last week, Banks have continued to find the banking halls flooded with customers who came to get registered. One of the banks, in a bid to assist its customers to beat the deadline, opened some of its branches last Saturday between 10am to 4pm. This, however, does not change the fact that some millions of Nigerians are yet to be registered.
Loading ...According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Bank Verification became necessary as a result of the increasing incidents of compromise on conventional security systems (password and pin), which increased the demand for greater security for access to sensitive or personal information in the banking system. In attending to this increased need for security, the project was initiated as a means of collecting the biometrics of account holders for an enhanced authentication of security processes. Thus, the Central Bank of Nigeria through the Banker’ Committee and in collaboration with all banks in Nigeria on February 14, 2014 launched a centralized biometric identification system for the banking industry tagged Bank Verification Number (BVN).
The target of the exercise was to give a unique identity to each customer, one that can be verified across the Nigerian Banking Industry, not just one bank. Through this, customers’ accounts are to be protected from unauthorized access, and issues of identity theft and fraud are by this reduced. Also, the banking industry will be empowered to fish out blacklisted customers.
Despite the fact that the exercise started in February last year, most customers have accused the various banks of not disseminating the information until the deadline was too close to accommodate the large number of people still unregistered. A lot of them claim to have been unaware of the exercise till May 2015, and accused the banks of doing it deliberately to block their accounts and use their monies which would be tied own for their banking businesses.
One of the customers who was trying to get registered on Monday at one of the banks in Asaba, said he had not heard about it till the third week of June. The elderly man who gave his name as Mr. Emmanuel Ashiedu Tukwasi said that he had heard nothing of the ongoing exercise since he neither frequents the banking hall nor use the ATM services. “When I heard of it last two weeks, I told my son to go and register for me but he said that I have to do it myself and I have not been feeling too strong since then” he stated.
Mr. Ashiedu was, however, doubtful of the relevance of the exercise since the banks already had the information when the account was opened. He insisted that even if they chose to do it for security reasons, there should be no deadline and it should be a continuous process, so that even when people come to open accounts after it has been done, they can simply do the verification at the same time.
In agreement with his views, another customer, John Oseji, complained that the whole exercise was unnecessary, especially for petty traders and students who rarely have large sums of money in their accounts. He emphasized that the only reason he was doing it was to avoid the account being blocked since that is where his money and salary are being paid into and he could not afford to have them tied down. “I have never experienced fraud or hacking of any kind, so I don’t see the need for it” he said.
Ebuka Aniegbu, another customer seen at one of the bank premises trying to get registered, complained that the whole process was disorganized as he had spent a better part of his Monday at the bank without getting registered. “The whole thing is just disorganized. I have been here since 8:45am and its already few minutes to 4pm and I have nothing to show for all the time wasted here. I am a student and a trader, and because of my business and my schooling, I have not been able to make time for the bank verification all this while.
I was unable to open my business today because of the BVN registration. It is necessary because if we don’t do it, our accounts will be blocked, but I don’t see the importance” he stated.
One of the account holders seen at the Eco-Bank close to Federal medical Center, Asaba who refused to give her name, explained that as a teacher in one of the private secondary schools, she barely had time to go for the verification exercise after school hours. “My school closes by 3:30pm daily on school days, except on Fridays when we close by 2pm. There is no way I could have made it to the Banking hall in time for the exercise.
“Last two weeks when I managed to take permission from school for two hours, I stayed here in the bank and waited for over an hour. Finally, I was told that their system had a network failure, and I should visit another branch. My time was almost up, so I went back to school. Today again, I took permission and came to get it done, but no success yet” she lamented bitterly.
Another customer, Nduka Okonkwo, while acknowledging the importance of the verification exercise, suggested that it could have been made available online, or possible through the ATM machines. “Considering the number of people yet to do their own, It is a really awful situation. BVN is important as it will reduce fraud, if not eliminate it completely because one has his or her unique number that cannot be identified by anyone, like the ATM pin.”
He stated the reason for his delay was the nature of his work, explaining that he barely has time to come to the banks for daily transactions, as he operates through online banking. He also complained that instead of closing the registration at once, they could have done it gradually by first blocking the ATM services so that people would have no choice but to go into the banking hall and get registered.
A Customer Service Representative of one of the banks close to the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba, who would not want his name in print, explained that there was no need to panic. According to him, the accounts are not going to be blocked permanently, but the customers would be refused access to their monies until they get registered.
“Before the deadline, they were allowed to withdraw money from the account irrespective of the registration or not, but now that the deadline has elapsed, they would not be allowed to withdraw over the counter or wit ATM, or even transfer funds to another account until they get registered. The account still belongs to the owner. The bank is not going to take their money. It is against banking practices”, he said. He explained further that the exercise was also aimed at standardizing Nigerian banking practices, in line with what is obtainable globally.
The BVN project, which commenced in February 2014, officially closed Tuesday, June 30, 2015. However, as at June 11 when the Bankers Committee met, they stated that only 14 million customers had been registered under the BVN project. Going by the current statistics from the Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access, an organisation committed to deepening financial inclusion in Nigeria, only about 28.6 million adults in the country have bank accounts. How much of the remaining 14.6 million have been covered before the deadline remains to be seen. If 14 million account holders got registered in the first 16 months of the exercise, one can figure that the remaining 14.6 million could not have been registered in the space of three weeks.
Analysts have asserted that enforcing the deadline without an extension would defeat the purpose of the whole exercise. By leaving millions of account holders stranded until further, it would mean that the database would still be incomplete as some people are not included therein, thereby making it difficult for some people to be traced through the database.
Even though most account holders are still crying for an extension to save them from losing access to their accounts and money, It is unclear if customers who failed to register yesterday will now be banned from accessing their accounts, or enjoying foreign exchange until they register, or whether the Bankers’ Committee would allow an extension of the deadline.
While there are 28.6 million bank accounts belonging to adults in Nigeria, the Electronic Payment Providers Association of Nigeria states that the number of bank account holders (made up of both individuals, including children, and organisations) has reached 76 million out of a population of 170 million people
