Biometric registration of bank customers begins in Lagos

JULY 09,2014.

PUNCH.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has announced the commencement of biometric registration of bank customers in Lagos.

As a result, bank customers in the state will be issued a unique identification number called Bank Verification Number.

A statement quoted the Managing Director, Nigeria Interbank Settlement System, Mr. Ade Shonubi, who is also the Head of the BVN Project Management team, as saying “This exercise has started in selected bank branches in Lagos. This is the first phase of the country-wide rollout. Already, banks’ headquarters servers have been configured, deployed and tested; and their staff members have been trained in preparation for the enrolment and verification of end users who are all bank customers.”

The BVN gives each bank customer a unique identity across the banking industry. This can be used for easy identification and verification of the customers.

According to Shonubi, the BVN initiative is part of the financial inclusion policy of the Federal Government’s Financial Sector Strategy, which aims to ensure that the nation becomes one of the top 20 largest economies in the world by 2020.

The NIBSS boss said that in order to ensure an efficient implementation, a phased rollout approach was being adopted.

He added that the biometric data capture machines had been deployed to about 1000 bank branches in Lagos.

Shonubi said, “To date, over 16,000 BVNs have been issued; at full roll out, 10,000 enrolment sets will be deployed across 5,000 bank branches nation-wide. This enrolment process is done only once and your BVN will be linked to all your bank accounts across all the banks in the country.

“The BVN solution is to ensure accountability, protect bank customers’ account from unauthorised access, reduce exposure to fraud, check identity theft, enhance credit advancement to bank customers, and also encourage financial inclusion.”