NIBSS: 18m customers register for BVN

• Registration for Nigerians in the Diaspora begins

The Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) has said that 18 million customers have so far registered for the Bank Verification Number (BVN), even as it revealed that on-line BVN registration for Nigerians in the Diaspora had commenced. Managing Director of the NIBSS, Mr. Ade Shonubi, said this last Friday in Lagos while briefing journalists on issues surrounding the BVN registration of Nigerians in the United Kingdom. Shonubi explained that contrary to reports in some quarters, it was the NIBSS and not the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that contracted the firm, Online Integrated Solutions (OIS), to carry out the BVN registration of Nigerians in the UK.

He said that the decision to engage the services of an external firm was informed by the fact that aside from the costs and logistics challenges of transporting and accommodating NIBSS staff overseas to handle the BVN registration, the law in many western countries prevents biometric data of citizens from being collected outside their territory.

The NIBSS boss further pointed out that OIS was selected because the firm already had an existing relationship with the Nigeria High Commission for the provision of Nigerian visa and pass- Tony Chukwunyem The Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) has said that 18 million customers have so far registered for the Bank Verification Number (BVN), even as it port services. He debunked speculations that the thirty pounds fee charged by the firm for the exercise was high, adding that it was to cover the firms’ cost. He said: “They (IOS) are not paying us one kobo. We told them to recover their cost; I think the cost was meant to be something like fifty pounds, but it was brought down to thirty.

They have also agreed to go anywhere there are Nigerians. For instance, they will go to China.” Shonubi explained that the first day of the exercise at the Nigerian High Commission seemed rowdy because the firm had not envisaged that Nigerians residing in the UK would come out in the large numbers that they did for the exercise.

In order to prevent a recurrence, he disclosed that the firm, in conjunction with the NIBSS, had set up a website through which Nigerians in the Diaspora could enroll on the BVN platform. Reacting to complaints that many customers in Nigeria who had registered for the BVN exercise were yet to receive their numbers, Shonubi revealed that NIBSS had worked out an arrangement that would see it sending the numbers to such customers via Short Messaging System (SMS) in the next few weeks.

He stressed that currently, there were no plans to extend the new deadline of October 31 for bank customers both at home in foreign countries to register for the BVN, urging Nigerians that were yet to obtain their BVN to do so before the date, otherwise, they could be denied access to their accounts. Also speaking at the briefing, BVN Project Manager at NIBSS, Mr. Seyi Ademosun, explained that to obtain their BVN, customers in the Diaspora would henceforth have to book an appointment for the exercise online.