The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has unveiled Bank Verification Number (BVN) 2.0 as disclosed as part of efforts to reach Nigerians financially excluded from the financial system and increase the rate of financial inclusion.
Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor said the 2.0 evolution will involve classifying the Bank Verification Number (BVN) into two-lite and premium.
BVN Premium will cover bank customers that can provide the 18 basic requirements for a complete BVN-enrolment while the BVN Lite will require minimal documentation like name and phone number for bank customers, especially those at the rural areas that do not meet the full requirements.
The CBN introduced the BVN scheme into the Nigerian banking sector in 2014 and has since enrolled over 40 million bank customers into the scheme and targets taking the number of BVN-linked accounts to 100 million in the next five years.
The CBN Governor said the Bankers’ Committee is collaborating with the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) and Mobile Money Operators (MMOs) to ensure that the project succeeds and more Nigerians brought into the financial system.
He said the BVN-2.0 classification scheme will help bring more people into the financial system and reduce the financial exclusion rate.
Emefiele said the Know Your Customer (KYC) scheme is part of what will be migrated into the BVN Lite.
“However, there are people who are currently financially excluded, like people in our rural communities that carry phones but not having financial services. With the collaboration of NCC, we are putting this BVN arrangement to allow them to conduct minimal financial services.”
He added, “It should be possible for us to migrate this person into the BVN-lite arrangement where they can conduct minimal financial services, not just banking services, but minimal financial services, insurance and anything you want to conduct in terms of finance, e-payment, or anything, you can do it with the aid of your phone. Bringing them into the financial system will help to increase the rate of financial inclusion and reduce the exclusion rate.”
According to Emefiele, with the benefits of the BVN to bank customers and the economy, there is a need to consolidate and move BVN to 2.0.
“This entails, for instance, to reclassify and segregate transactions that could be done on BVN. We have two classifications.
“The existing BVN that we have in the system has about 18 lines of information. We decided that we classify into BVN premium and BVN lite. There should also be a system where people who are financially excluded can now be included. If you are on BVN lite there is a limit to the kind of transactions you can do in terms of deposit and in items of loans,” he added.
“The important thing is that we want to make you financially included where you can conduct basic banking services. Our people in the rural communities who have BVN lite will later be migrated to the BVN-premium when you meet all the requirements,” he stated.
