•75m accounts affected • Sanction banks, not customers, expert urges CBN
From Uche Usim, Abuja
Anxious depositors will be flocking to Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), microfinance banks (MFBs), primary mortgage banks (PMBs) and other financial institutions from today to regularise and link their accounts to their Biometric Verification Numbers and National Identity Numbers (NIN) as mandated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
At the weekend, the CBN, in a circular jointly signed by Chibuzo Efobi, Director, Payment Systems Management Department and Haruna Mustapha, Director, Financial Policy and Regulations Department mandated financial institutions to stop transactions on all funded individual accounts or wallets without BVN or NIN, effective March 1, 2024. The banks are required to pin a “Post No Debit or Credit” notice on such accounts.
Daily Sun learnt that influential Nigerians, who love to bank ‘under the radar’, by running their accounts without BVN or NIN, are currently panic-stricken and looking for a way around the issue as the CBN appears resolute in pursuing the matter to a logical conclusion.
Sources noted that the matter was being treated as a “national security issue”, adding that banks caught operating accounts without BVN or NIN after the expiration of the deadline “shall be severely dealt with”.
“It’s a matter of national security. All accounts must be linked to BVN or NIN to make it easier to trace illicit financial inflows, terror financing, drug trafficking and other crimes.
“We also need this KYC initiative to boost data harmonisation, abolish ‘ghost’ accounts and all that. We should know who owns what accounts and funds therein in one click. We’re not joking with this matter and any bank sabotaging it will have itself to blame”, the source said.
Industry records reveal that there are about 75 million accounts without BVN or NIN. More so, latest data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) indicates that there were 59 million (58,999,262) accounts with BVN as at October 9, 2023.
The CBN has directed that going forward, no new Tier1 accounts and wallets should be opened without BVN or NIN.
“Any unfunded account/wallet without BVN shall be placed on “Post No Debit or Credit” until the new process is satisfied.
“Effective March 1, 2024, all funded accounts or wallets without BVN shall be placed on “Post No Debit or Credit” and no further transactions permitted. The BVN or NIN attached to and/or associated with all accounts/wallets must be
electronically revalidated by January 31, 2024.
“To ensure uniform and full compliance, the Executive Compliance Officers, Chief
Compliance Officers or Heads of the Compliance Functions are advised to acquaint themselves with the attached Guidance Notes which becomes applicable to all institutions regulated by the CBN.
“Also, a comprehensive BVN and NIN audit shall be conducted shortly and where breaches are identified, appropriate sanctions shall be applied.
“Finally, all financial institutions regulated by CBN are required to apply strict compliance on restrictions on Tier1 accounts/wallets as they relate to limits on transaction values and
cumulative balances”, the apex bank explained.
Meanwhile, a financial expert, Mr Okechukwu Unegbu, has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to sanction banks that allowed customers to operate accounts without their BVN and NIN.
Unegbu, a past president of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
He spoke against the backdrop of the recent directive by the apex bank to freeze all bank accounts without BVN and NIN from April, 2024.
The directive was contaiAccording to Unegbu, the apex bank should spare the account holders and impose heavy sanctions on the DMBs.
“It is the fault of the DMBs; instead of punishing the customers, the CBN should sanction the banks heavily.
“They were instructed to ensure that every account holder had the BVN and NIN, but they failed to comply because of the greed to have deposits,” he said.
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