91 million Nigerian bank accounts risk deactivation over NIN-BVN linkage
About 91 million bank accounts are at risk of being frozen following the March 1 expiration deadline given by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to commercial banks to get all accounts linked with customers’ Bank Verification Number (BVN) or National Identity Number (NIN).
Nigerian Sketch learnt that many banks sent fresh and final reminders to depositors at the weekend urging them to use various digital platforms to regularize their accounts or visit any of their branches to achieve that.
The CBN directed banks to restrict tier-1 accounts or wallets without NIN or BVN in a notice on December 1, 2023 signed by the Director of Payments System Management Department, Chibuzo Efobi and Director of Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Haruna Mustapha. The statement said; “For all existing Tier-1 accounts/wallets without BVN or NIN: Effective immediately, any unfunded account/wallet shall be placed on ‘Post No Debit or Credit’ until the new process is satisfied.
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“Effective March 1, 2024, all funded accounts or wallets shall be placed on ‘Post No Debit or Credit’, and no further transactions will be permitted. The BVN or NIN attached to and/ or associated with all accounts/wallets must be electronically revalidated by January 31, 2024. In response to the directive, Nigerian banks sent out notifications to customers and urged them to come forward and update their bank account information with their BVN/NIN before Friday, March 1, 2024, deadline.
The banks warned that customers who fail to provide the required information risk being unable to carry out transactions. While the CBN has not officially spoken on the fate of customers whose accounts are without NIN or BVN, many depositors are panic-stricken as they flood various banks to sort out the issue. The Nigeria InterBank Settlement System (NIBSS) revealed that BVN linked accounts stood at 60,492,104 million as at January 26 march.
