BVN: CBN may rule out deadline extension

Firstclass newsline gathered that customers on Monday besieged various
banking halls in Lagos, Abuja and other cities for their biometric
registration in order to get their unique Bank Verification Numbers 48
hours to the deadline for them to do so.
When our correspondent visited banking halls in Lagos on Monday,
hundreds of customers seeking to do their biometric registration were
seen in very long queues.
Banks visited in Lagos Island, Isolo, Ikeja and Egbeda were full of
customers seeking to obtain their BVNs.
The overwhelming crowd forced the management of the branches of some
of the banks to deploy more staff members for the BVN registration
exercise.
As of Monday afternoon, long queues of customers seeking to obtain
their BVN were still seen in several bank branches across the state.
Bank officials in Abuja, Port Harcourt and other major cities told a
source in separate telephone interviews that the long queues were
recorded in the various branches.
About 14.6 million bank customers will be denied access to certain
banking services beginning from Wednesday if the Central Bank of
Nigeria goes ahead to end the registration exercise today (Tuesday).
As of last week, only 14 million bank customers had registered for the exercise.
Going by the current statistics from the Enhancing Financial
Innovation and Access, an organisation committed to deepening
financial inclusion in Nigeria, only about 28.6 million adults in the
country have bank accounts
However, the CBN said on Monday that it would not extend the June 30
deadline set for the completion of the registration of bank customers.
The Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr. Ibrahim Mu'azu, told
a source in a telephone interview that the bank would not extend the
deadline because enough time had been given to members of the public
to get registered.
As a result, he said effective Wednesday (tomorrow), banks would begin
to deny some specific banking services to customers who lacked the
BVN.
Mu'azu said, "For now, the deadline will not be extended. We have
given customers enough time to do the registration. For customers who
fail to register before the deadline on June 30 (today), they will not
be able to enjoy some banking services, including access to loans and
Internet banking services until they are able to get registered.
"The registration will continue but the penalty for failure to
register within the stipulated time, which includes denying
unregistered customers access to certain banking services, will
commence on Wednesday."
The CBN spokesperson reiterated that although unregistered customers
would still have access to their bank accounts, they would be denied
other services.
Firstclassnewsline.net