The registration for Bank Verification Number (BVN) increased by 1.75 million in the last four months.
This is according to data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).
The BVN database, which was 61.16 million as of March 15, 2024, rose to 61.87 million by the middle of May, according to the NIBSS data.
As of December 2023, the BVN database was at 60.11 million.
T the end of 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directed commercial, merchant, non-interest, payment service banks, other financial institutions, and mobile money operators to electronically validate all BVN or National Identification Number (NIN) attached to accounts/wallets by January 31, 2024.
Meanwhile, the NIBSS data shows that the number of active bank accounts in Nigeria was 219.6 million in March 2024, an indication that there is still a gap between the number of accounts and the number of BVN, which is now a compulsory requirement for opening an account.
The data shows that there may be a gap of about 157.8 million between the number of accounts and the registered BVNs, even though multiple accounts could be linked to a single BVN.
