Undoubtedly, this move will certainly reduce drastically, operational anomalies and fraud in the banking sector
Due to the level of revolution that has taken place in the banking sector in Nigeria, banks have become completely Information Technology IT compliant in their business operations. But it is sad that fraudulent individuals have been having a field day as they have created a way of hacking into and manipulating the banks’ payment system to commit fraud. This is why the ongoing Bank Verification Number BVN project, initiated by the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN aimed at protecting bank customers and strengthening the banking system in a whole is, indeed, laudable and a right steps in the right direction.
Meanwhile, it is worrisome that barely three months to the deadline given by CBN to conclude the exercise which is June 30, many Nigerians and bank customers have not realized the need to comply with the directive. It is either many of them do not understand the rationale behind the initiative or they are not even aware at all.
To be sure, the CBN’s BVN programme is an initiative where customers in the financial system get registered using biometric technology which involves the process of recording a person’s unique physical traits such as fingerprints and facial features. This record can then be used to correctly indentify the person afterwards. Once these are properly captured, then the person is given a BVN PIN number.
More so, it is imperative to note that in the BVN programme, no two persons will have the same biometric information. As such, it will be easier for banks to check the features of a person doing a transaction against the record which the bank has captured thereby correctly indentifying the owner of an account.
Fundamentally, it is meant to protect bank customers, reduce fraud and further strengthen the Nigerian banking system. Recently, the Group managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Bank Plc, Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo in a statement, accentuates this fact as he emphatically stated that the BVN programme will be used to manage the credit score of bank customers. To this end, credit report from credit bureaus, would help lenders to determine who really qualifies for a loan as identities provided by the exercise would be matched against the information. As a matter of fact, this will help check credit worthiness of borrowers as the BVN initiative will provide a centralized customer biometric information system in the banking sector which will make it difficult for people who take multiple loans with no intension of repayment to operate. There is no doubt that the activities of such people are inimical to progress in the banking sector. It must be understood that one of the beauties of the BVN initiative is that the PIN number obtained in the exercise is unified. In other words, the information generated on registration at one point, will automatically be linked to all the banks. So, one does not need to register in all the banks he operates an account in.
This Newspaper, therefore, appreciates and commends CBN for embarking on such laudable programme which can only be described as a rescue mission in the banking sub sector and could not have come at a better time. Undoubtedly, this move will, certainly, reduce drastically; if not completely eradicate operational anomalies and fraud in the banking sector.
We therefore urge Nigerians to expediently comply with CBN’s directive and do not hesitate to take part in the ongoing BVN programme as bank customers without the BVN unique PIN after June 30, will not be able to do any banking transaction. Again, it is important that CBN and the individual banks engage in a more aggressive awareness campaign on the gains and the implication of not participating in the ongoing BVN programme.
