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 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, as it debunks claims that there would be total restriction on accounts without Bank Verification Number (BVN) after the deadline today.
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.
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, Without BVN, you still have access to your cash but services/facilities (internet/mobile banking, loans etc) will have some restrictions”, he said in chat with BusinessDay.
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.
Currently, only about 14 million out of about 76 million bank accounts have so far complied.