Banks in the country have successfully linked 38 million accounts with the Bank Verification Numbers, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria.
As part of its financial inclusion drive, the CBN said it was targeting 100 million BVNs in the next five years.
According to the CBN, “In order to ease the constraint poor identification has on the availability of credit to prospective banking customers, the CBN will support an aggressive enrolment of prospective banking customers in the informal sector onto the BVN system.
“The current enrolment of 38 million unique banking customers will be expanded to 100 million over the next five years.
“Ongoing partnership with the National Identity Management Commission will also enable integration between the two databases.
“This effort will improve the comfort level on banks in providing services to an expanded customer base. It will also aid in the development of a credit profile for banking customers which will assist in improving access to credit for creditworthy borrowers by banks.”
The CBN had mandated that the details of the BVN signatories, directors and beneficial owners of corporate accounts be linked to their respective entity accounts (incorporate and non-incorporate).
It noted that all corporate accounts should have the BVN details of all signatories, directors and beneficial owners linked to their respective non-individual company accounts.
This was also mandatory for non-resident non-Nigerian directors of corporate accounts.