Days after the expiration of the deadline set for bank customers
to register and obtain their Bank Verification Number, the Nigeria
Interbank Settlement System Plc has disclosed that Deposit Money
Banks in the country have yet to link 6.6 million BVNs to bank
accounts at least five
million bank accounts had been blocked by the banks.
The NIBSS, owned by the CBN and commercial banks in the country,
is the technical organisation appointed by the central bank and the
Bankers’ Committee to be in charge of the BVN project.
The NIBSS, in an emailed response to enquiries
on Tuesday, stated that only 14.4 million BVNs had been linked to
bank accounts out of the total of 21 million BVN holders in the
country.
The organisation absolved itself of blame for the delay in linking the
BVNs to bank accounts, saying only the banks had the details of their
customers and could therefore link the numbers to the accounts.
The Head, Corporate Communications, NIBSS, Lilian Phido, said the
organisation and the CBN had done several public enlightenment
campaigns to educate customers on the BVN process, adding that
failure to register and link the BVN at the banks could not have been
caused by the organisation.
Meanwhile, long queues of customers seeking to obtain and verify
their BVNs persisted in banking halls across the country on Tuesday,
leading to chaotic situations in most of the branches.
For most part of the banking hours on Tuesday, officials battled to
manage the crowd of customers at most of the bank branches visited
by our correspondent in Lagos.
Reports indicated that similar situations prevailed in Abuja, Port
Harcourt and other major cities in the country.
Branches of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Access Bank Plc, Ecobank
Nigeria Plc, Diamond Bank and Guaranty Trust Plc were visited in Lagos were filled with customers seeking to obtain
and verify their BVNs.
At some of the branches, bank officials were heard advising some of
the customers to go to the lenders’ websites to link the BVNs to their
accounts.
They also asked them to send SMS to certain numbers and the BVNs
would be linked to their bank accounts.
However, the angry customers refused and insisted on staying in the
queues until the problems were resolved and their bank accounts
reactivated.
“They have blocked my bank accounts and I cannot access money
and they are telling me to come back. How will I get money to do the
basic things I want to do? These people are not serious,” a customer
was heard saying at a bank branch in Surulere.
our further finding also showed that the DMBs had on
Monday unblocked several accounts from the over five million they
had blocked on Saturday night when the deadline expired.
I also found out that a significant number of the affected
customers had their bank accounts activated immediately after filing
the BVN verification forms.
Meanwhile, most bank
were planning to introduce weekend services to enable the customers
to register and obtain their BVNs.VISIT YOUR BANK BRANH TO KNOW IF YOUR ACCOUNT HAVE BEEN LINKED
