BVN REGISTRATION FOR NIGERIANS ABROAD NOW POSSIBLE

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has unveiled guidelines for the Biometric Verification Number (BVN) registration of Nigerians in the Diaspora.

Twelve locations have been approved for the initial phase of the exercise which includes: Atlanta, Beijing, Dubai, Guangzhou, Houston, Johannesburg, Leicester, London, New York, New Delhi, Shanghai, Washington DC

Other locations would be introduced later based on feedback whilst areas with less number of Nigerians would commence registration through scheduling within a given period of time.

A BVN web portal has been developed and would be linked to the Nigerian Inter Bank Settlement System. Furthermore, deployment of necessary devices like scanners etc for this exercise has commenced. Nigerian banks abroad are expected to capture customer's necessary data, generate a BVN and communicate it to the customer

Another option for the BVN registration for Nigerians abroad is through a contracted Online Integrated Solution (OIS) provider. Customers can visit any OIS agent nearest data capture center . Once registered, customer details would be transferred to the Nigerian Inter Bank Settlement System by OIS. This option however attracts a fee of 30 pounds or it's equivalent.

With this development, Nigerians abroad can easily get registered at the nearest point without necessarily traveling to Nigeria.

The BVN came into existence due to the increasing incidents of compromise on conventional security systems (password and pin), bringing about a high demand for greater security on access to sensitive or personal information in the Banking system.

The BVN gives each customer a unique identity across the Nigerian Banking industry that can be used for easy identification and verification at Point of Banking operations.

Biometrics refers to identification of an individual based on physiological attributes- fingerprint, voice, facial features etc.

To address existing challenges with identity management, the Central Bank of Nigeria, in collaboration with all Nigerian banks launched a centralized biometric identification system tagged Bank Verification Number (BVN).