RE: Bank Verification Number Registration

The Central Bank of Nigeria (“CBN”) in collaboration with the Bankers Committee launched the Bank Verification Number (“BVN”) project as part of its overall strategy to ensure effectiveness of the Know Your Customer (“KYC”) principles in the industry in February, 2014.

The implication is that all account holders in Nigeria are expected to enroll with, and be issued a unique identification number by their respective banks. The policy is aimed at reducing fraud, increase the efficiency of banking operations and ease customers’ access to credit facilities.

In the case of corporate accounts, the BVNs of signatories to the corporate accounts would be linked to the corporate accounts.

The requirement applies both to customers resident within and outside of Nigeria. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Wednesday 19th August, 2015 via a circular titled, Circular on the Framework for the Enrolment of Nigerian Banks' Customers in Diaspora For Bank Verification Number (BVN) Issuance, issued guidelines for enrolment BVN by customers living abroad to ease the difficulties of registering bank customers in Diaspora. In this regard, the CBN has created two options:

1. Use of Foreign Based Nigerian Banks

Customers of Nigerian banks are required to present themselves to the offshore branches/subsidiaries of any Nigerian bank (where such facilities have been made available), for the BVN enrolment. The deployment of scanners and other devices to these locations have started in earnest.

Nigerian banks abroad are expected to capture necessary data, generate a BVN and communicate same to the customers. Thereafter, the customers are expected to forward the assigned BVN to their banks, for linkage with their accounts.

“A web portal to achieve this linkage to bank accounts has been developed and deployed, while the process of such linkage will be made available by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) to all those enrolled abroad,” the CBN explained.

1. Use of a Consultant – Online Integrated Solutions (OIS)

The second option, is to employ the assistance of a company, known as the Online Integrated Solution (OIS). The CBN explained that the company had been engaged to establish stations for data capture and generation of BVN at the cost of £30 per transaction, to be paid by the customer.

The company is expected to capture necessary data for online transmission to the NIBSS, who would thereafter, generate the BVN and communicate same to the customer.

The customer may approach OIS for BVN, where the communication from NIBSS is not received within 48 hours after the enrolment. Thereafter, Nigerian bank customers in the diaspora are expected to forward their BVN to their banks for linkage with their accounts as in option one above.

The address of the enrolment locations and the kick-off dates are as follows:

S/No.	City/Country	Address	Possible Go-Live Date
	Washington DC, USA	Washington (11900 Park Lawn Drive, Suite 160, Rockville , MD)	Aug. 24th 2015
	Dubai, UAE	Dubai (2907 Platinum Tower Cluster 1, Jumeirah, Lake Towers)	Aug. 19th 2015
	Johannesburg, South Africa	No. 6 Bolton Road, Rose Bank, Johannesburg, SA	Sept. 7th 2015
	Beijing, China	Unit 1, Suite 1801, Kun Sha Building, 16XIN Yaun LI Str. Chaoyang District, Beijing, PRC	Sept. 7th 2015
	Shanghai, China	(RM 2025, 22/F, Catic Building, 212 Jiangning Road, Jing’an District, Shanghai, PRC).	Sept. 7th 2015
	Guangzhou, China	Unit 27/28, 41st Floor, R&F To-Win Building, 30 Huaxia Rd, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, PRC	Sept. 7th 2015
	New Delhi, India	Plot No. 4, Ground Floor, Institutional Area, Malcha Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110021, India	Sept. 7th 2015
	Atlanta, USA	918 Holocomb Bridge Roswell, Atlanta	Sept. 7th 2015
	London, UK	56-57 Fleet Street, City of London EC4Y 1JU	Sept. 14th 2015
	Leicester, UK	The Peplum Center, Orchardson Avenue, Leicester LE4 6DP	Enrolling already
	New York, USA	To be determined (TBD)	To be determined (TBD)
	Houston, USA	To be determined (TBD)	To be determined (TBD)

By a circular dated Tuesday, June 30th 2015 with reference number BPS/DIR/GEN/CIR/02/008 signed by the Director, Banking and Payment Systems Department, CBN, Mr Dipo Fatokun, the apex bank had extended the deadline for the Bank Verification Number registration by four months, from June 30 to October 31, 2015. All customers are therefore expected comply with the BVN requirement on or before 31st October, 2015.