Three days after the expiration of the
deadline set for bank customers to register and obtain their Bank
Verification Number, the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Plc has
disclosed that Deposit Money Banks in the country have yet to link 6.6
million BVNs to bank accounts.
The PUNCH had on Tuesday exclusively reported that at least five million bank accounts had been blocked by the banks.
The NIBSS, owned by the CBN and
commercial banks in the country, is the technical organisation appointed
by the central bank and the Bankers’ Committee to be in charge of the
BVN project.
The NIBSS, in an emailed response to
enquiries by our correspondent on Tuesday, stated that only 14.4 million
BVNs had been linked to bank accounts out of the total of 21 million
BVN holders in the country.
The organisation absolved itself of
blame for the delay in linking the BVNs to bank accounts, saying only
the banks had the details of their customers and could therefore link
the numbers to the accounts.
The Head, Corporate Communications,
NIBSS, Lilian Phido, said the organisation and the CBN had done several
public enlightenment campaigns to educate customers on the BVN process,
adding that failure to register and link the BVN at the banks could not
have been caused by the organisation.
Meanwhile, long queues of customers
seeking to obtain and verify their BVNs persisted in banking halls
across the country on Tuesday, leading to chaotic situations in most of
the branches.
For most part of the banking hours on
Tuesday, officials battled to manage the crowd of customers at most of
the bank branches visited by our correspondent in Lagos.
Reports indicated that similar situations prevailed in Abuja, Port Harcourt and other major cities in the country.
Branches of First Bank of Nigeria
Limited, Access Bank Plc, Ecobank Nigeria Plc, Diamond Bank and Guaranty
Trust Plc visited by our correspondent in Lagos were filled with
customers seeking to obtain and verify their BVNs.
At some of the branches, bank officials
were heard advising some of the customers to go to the lenders’ websites
to link the BVNs to their accounts.
They also asked them to send SMS to certain numbers and the BVNs would be linked to their bank accounts.
However, the angry customers refused and
insisted on staying in the queues until the problems were resolved and
their bank accounts reactivated.
“They have blocked my bank accounts and I
cannot access money and they are telling me to come back. How will I
get money to do the basic things I want to do? These people are not
serious,” a customer was heard saying at a bank branch in Surulere.
Further findings by our correspondent
showed that the DMBs had on Monday unblocked several accounts from the
over five million they had blocked on Saturday night when the deadline
expired.
Our correspondent found out that a
significant number of the affected customers had their bank accounts
activated immediately after filing the BVN verification forms.
Meanwhile, banking sources told our
correspondent that most banks were planning to introduce weekend
services to enable the customers to register and obtain their BVNs.
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