CBN unveils rules for registering Nigerians abroad in BVN scheme

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has unveiled guidelines for registration of Nigerians in the Diaspora, who are customers of the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in Nigeria, into the Biometric Verification Number (BVN) initiative.

The development may have resolved the anxiety over the fate of Nigerians abroad in getting seamless transactions.

In a circular to the DMBs yesterday, signed by the Director of Banking and Payments System Department, Dipo Fatokun, the CBN noted that the guidelines were outcome of full collaboration with key stakeholders in the Nigerian banking industry.

Twelve locations have been arranged for the first phase of the exercise – London, Leicester, New York, Atlanta, Washington DC, Houston, Johannesburg, Beijing, Shanghai, Guanghou, Dubai, and New Delhi. The second phase has been scripted to include locations with high demand for the service, based on online feedback, “while remote locations with lower concentration of Nigerians will be accommodated through scheduled sessions for defined periods.”

According to CBN, Nigerians abroad can now present themselves physically without travelling back to the country by visiting their respective bank branches/subsidiaries where such facilities have been made available or the contractor engaged to establish stations across countries for the purpose- Online Integrated Solution (OIS).

“The deployment of scanners and other devices to these locations has started in earnest. Nigerian banks abroad are expected to capture necessary data, generate a BVN and communicate same to the customer.

“Thereafter, customers are expected to forward the assigned BVN to their respective banks for linkage with their accounts. A web portal to achieve this linkage to bank accounts has been developed and deployed, while the process of such linkage will be made available by the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) to those enrolled abroad,” Fatokun said.

According to him, the OIS option would capture the necessary data and generate BVN at a fee of 30 British pounds or its equivalent for each transaction and payable by the customer.

“OIS is expected to capture the necessary data for online transmission to NIBSS, which would thereafter generate the BVN and communicate same to the customer.