The Central Bank of Nigeria has disclosed that about 38 million bank accounts are now linked to Bank Verification Numbers (BVN).
The Apex bank in Nigeria also declared that it hopes the number will rise to 100 million BVNs in the next five years.
According to a statement released in Abuja, the CBN stressed that it would be pursuing an ambitious policy to make sure banks link about 100 million accounts to the BVN in another 60 months as part of part efforts to create a creditworthy and transparent banking system.
The CBN statement reads: “In order to ease the constraint poor identification has on the availability of credit to prospective banking customers, the CBN will support an aggressive enrolment of prospective banking customers in the informal sector onto the BVN system.
“The current enrolment of 38 million unique banking customers will be expanded to 100 million over the next five years,” said the CBN which also highlighted the benefit accruable from the ongoing plans to link BVN with the National Identity Number (NIM) issued by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
“Ongoing partnership with the National Identity Management Commission will also enable integration between the two databases.
“This effort will improve the comfort level of banks in providing services to an expanded customer base. It will also aid in the development of a credit profile for banking customers which will assist in improving access to credit for creditworthy borrowers by banks.”
The Banks in Nigeria have been mandated to see to it that the details of the BVN signatories, directors and beneficial owners of corporate accounts are linked to their respective entity accounts whether incorporate and non-incorporate.
According to the CBN, the strategy is to ensure that the banking system is much more stable on credible data whether of individuals or corporate entities.
