Bank Verification Number: Acting CBN Governor, Deputies, Registered

The Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Mrs Sarah Alade, and all the deputy governors of the Bank have been registered in Abuja Branch as part of the commencement of the nationwide registration for the Bank Verification Number (BVN).

Acting Governor, who was registered at the Abuja Branch of the Bank on Monday, June 2, 2014, was accompanied to the registration venue by Alhaji Suleiman Barau, Deputy Governor (Corporate Services), Dr. Kingsley Moghalu (Operations) and Mr. Adebayo Adelabu (Financial System Stability).

The project which is an initiative of the Bankers’ Committee, aims at promoting financial inclusion drive and preventing money laundering in Nigeria’s financial system.

It was launched by the CBN in February 2014, to revolutionise banking and payment systems in the country.

The biometric authentication is also aimed to address the safety of customers’ funds and avoid losses through compromise of Personal Identification Numbers (PIN).

With the BVN ,driver’s license, international passport, national identity card, and other documentation that identify customers would not necessarily be required when making transactions as soon as a customer gets his BVN. Also Customers who are not educated or who do not have identity cards with which to open bank accounts can do so seamlessly.

The project is expected to provide a centralised platform through which banks may enroll and uniquely verify the identity of each customer for ‘know your customer’ (KYC) purposes, perform credit checks, verify customer’s integrity and to authenticate customers from a point of transaction device.