*Bans withdrawal from non-BVN compliant account
The Central Bank of Nigeria has extended the deadline for Diaspora bank customers to enroll for the Biometric Verification Number (BVN) to January 31st 2016.
The extension was announced in a statement by the Director of Corporate Communications, Alhaji Ibrahim Muazu. The statement said that the extension was in response to the appeals by customers in Diaspora for more time to enable them complete the enrolment exercise as well as link the BVN with their respective accounts.
The CBN however emphasised that the extension was only for customers in the Diaspora, advising Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to ensure that the exemption was utilised by the targeted group.
Meanwhile, the CBN has relaxed restriction on non-BVN accounts of resident customers. The statement said, “The expiration of the October 31 enrolment deadline, bank accounts of Nigeria residents without the BVN would henceforth be operated as “NO CUSTOMER INITIATED DEBIT” account, until the account holders obtain and attach BVNs to the accounts. This means that a customer may not be allowed to withdraw money from his or her account until the BVN has been acquired and linked to the account.
The CBN statement clarified that accounts of Nigeria residents without BVN would continue to receive cash and electronic credit inflows and would neither be deactivated nor confiscated. It therefore advised the deposit money banks to educate their customers accordingly.
It also advised the banks to remind their customers of the need to link their BVN with their accounts if they had done the enrolment at another bank.
It will be recalled that the CBN had issued a statement stipulating that any bank customer without the BVN by October 31, 2015, would be deemed to have inadequate Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements.
Recall that the CBN on August 18 released framework for Enrolment of Nigerian bank customers in Diapora for BVN Issuance. The framework allows the Diaspora to present themselves for BVN enrolment, without travelling to the country. It also specified two options through which this could be achieved.
The first option, in the circular dated August 18, 2015, a copy of which was posted on the central bank’s website, was for customers of Nigerian banks 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.
It further directed all banks with branches/subsidiaries abroad to work with the NIBSS to ensure seamless implementation of this option.
The second option, according to the central bank is the use of a company, known as the Online Integrated Solution (OIS). The banking sector regulator 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,” it explained.
