CBN: Bank Customers' BVN Enrolment Hits 33.6m

Apex bank directs banks to resolve USSD disputes in 3 days

The number of bank customers that have registered for the Bank Verification Number (BVN) rose to 33,583,538 on June 24, 2018 from 30,655,000 in October 2017, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said. This represents an increase of 2,928,538 or 9.55 per cent over the eightmonth period.

This is just as the CBN has directed all commercial banks to resolve disputes arising from use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) channel within three days.

Speaking at the ‘Meet The Executive’ forum organised by Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) in Lagos, the CBN Director, Banking & Payment System Department, Mr. ‘Dipo Fatokun, described the introduction of the BVN initiative as one of the success stories in the financial system.

He said: “BVN is another thing of great success and a very fantastic initiative we launched which provides customers with unique identification and can be verifies across the Nigerian banking industry.

“Just as development usually ride on another, the BVN has provided a basis for a lot of offerings to happen in the financial services industry. We now see people offering credit, ability to open bank accounts on the go, and so on.

lso speaking on USSD resolutions, Fatokun said the central bank believed quick resolution would help build more confidence in the payment system and bring more people into the financial services net.