BVN Enrolment Rises By 3.13m In 7 Months, Hits 55.03m

BVN Enrolment Rises By 3.13m In 7 Months, Hits 55.03m

A total number of 3.13 million Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) were issued by banks in the country between January and July this year, findings by New Telegraph show.

 

According to latest data released by the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), total BVN enrolment, which stood at 51.9 million as at the end of December 2021, increased to 55.03 million as at July 31, 2022.

This indicates that 3. 13 million new BVN enrolments were recorded in the first seven months of the year. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in collaboration with the Bankers’ Committee, NIBSS and the German firm, Dermalog, launched the $50 million BVN project on February 14, 2014, with the aim of capturing biometrics of all bank customers and giving them a unique identity that can be verified across the Nigerian banking industry. Former CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi, had said at the event that the BVN project would enable the apex bank to significantly reduce incidents of fraud and money laundering in the banking industry and also help accelerate financial inclusion by opening up opportunities for credit to millions of Nigerians who do not have a standard means of identification.

However, data obtained from NIBSS shows that while total BVN enrolments stood at 51.9 million as of the end of December 2021, total active BVNs across all banks stood at 44.5 million in the same period. The data also indicates that while as at the end of December last year the total number of bank accounts stood at 191.4 million, belonging to 122.3 customers, total number of active bank accounts at the end of 2021 stood at 133.5 million.

Although NIBSS has not released its latest industry customer account database, analysts believe that if total BVN registration stood at 55.03 million as at July 31, 2022, then this implies that a significant number of bank accounts may still not have BVNs. 

Indeed, New Telegraph’s analysis of NIBSS’ BVN enrolment data since the inception of the scheme, indicates that the pace of registration by bank customers seems to have slowed in the last few years, compared with what it was during the early years of the implementation of the project. For instance, on the eve of the October 31, 2015, deadline that CBN initially set for bank customers to obtain their BVNs, data released by the apex bank and NIBSS indicated that 20.8 million bank customers had enrolled. NIBSS’ data also showed that as at December 2016, the number of bank customers that had obtained their BVNs had increased to 27.7million.

The number climbed to 30.7 million by October 29, 2017, indicating that about 10 million bank customers were enrolled on the BVN platform between October 2015 and October 2017 (a two-year period). Further analysis of the NIBSS data shows that total BVN enrolment rose from 30.7 million on October 29, 2017 to 36.4 million, 40.4 million, 45.8 million and 51.9 million at the end of December 2018, December 2019, December 2020 and December 2021, respectively. This means that between October 29, 2017 and July 31, 2022, a total of 24.33 million new BVNs were issued. 

Analysts point out that at 55.03 million, current BVN enrolment in the industry is 14.97 million less than 70 million total BVN enrolment target by 2020 set by operators under the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility (SANEF) initiative. The SANEF initiative was launched in March, 2018, by CBN in collaboration with DMBs, NIBSS, licensed Mobile Money Operators (MMOs) and shared agents as part of measures to promote financial inclusion.

At its maiden press briefing in 2018, the SANEF technical committee said that the plan to almost double the number of Nigerians with BVN within two years was critical to boosting the country’s financial inclusion rate as well as ensuring financial stability. The committee said at the time that it was committed to enrolling “40 million new unique BVNs between now and year 2020; 10 million in 2018, 15 million in 2019 and 15 million in 2020,” adding that as part of plans to ensure that the 70 million enrolment target by 2020 was met, 10,000 remote BVN devices had been ordered by NIBSS and were being deployed by DMBs, MMOs and Super Agents. In addition to the SANEF initiative, the Bankers’ Committee, at its annual retreat in December 2019, had unveiled a new plan that required classification of BVN into two: BVN Premium and BVN Lite, as part of additional measures to boost BVN enrolment.

CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, told journalists at the time that while BVN Premium will cover customers that can provide the 18 basic requirements for a complete BVN enrolment, the BVN Lite will require minimal documentation like name and phone number for bank customers, especially those in rural areas that do not meet the full requirements. He explained that the initiative would enable such customers, mainly the poor, conduct minimal financial services and reduce financial exclusion rate.