Enrollment for the Bank Verification Number (BVN) by bank account holders in Nigeria has surged to 63.4 million as of September, according to data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS). This marks an increase from the 62.7 million recorded in July, with 750,048 new registrations in the past two months.
NIBSS data shows that the BVN database had 60 million enrollments by December 2023, meaning 3.4 million new registrations have been added so far this year. The spike in BVN enrollments can be attributed to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) directive in December 2023, which mandated the freezing of accounts not linked to BVN by April 2024.
The CBN’s directive also extended the BVN or National Identification Number (NIN) requirement to commercial, merchant, non-interest, and payment service banks, as well as mobile money operators. Despite the surge in enrollments, there remains a wide gap between the number of active bank accounts and BVN registrations, which are now mandatory for all accounts.
As of July 2024, Nigeria had 231.1 million active bank accounts, according to NIBSS. Although the gap between BVNs and accounts appears large, experts note that multiple accounts can be linked to a single BVN, which may reduce the actual disparity.
A report by Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA) reveals that 5% of banked adults in Nigeria, or approximately 3 million people, lack a BVN or NIN. The BVN is a unique identifier used across all Nigerian banks, offering security and protecting customers from unauthorized account access.
The CBN’s recent directive reinforces the need for BVN linkage across all financial accounts, including those held with fintech companies, as it is now a compulsory requirement for account operation across the Nigerian banking sector.