By Babajide Komolafe

‘IF you don’t register for the Biometric Verification Number (BVN) before the October 31st  deadline, nothing will happen to you”.

File: BVN registration

This statement was made by Jimoh Musa, Deputy Director, Banking and Payment System Department, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), while addressing finance journalists last week Friday at the bi-monthly forum of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN).

The gathering was taken aback by the statement. To aggravate their consternation, Musa repeated the statement, paused, and added, “But you will not be able to access your account.” A wave of laughter erupted across the hall.

The focus of the August bi-monthly forum was “A review of Development in the E-payment Industry in 2015”. The Guest Speaker was Mr. Dipo Fatokun, Director, Banking and Payment System Department, CBN, and he was represented by Musa.

Since the BVN was the most topical issue in the first half of 2015, it was expected that discussion on the initiative would feature prominently at the forum.

After the preambles about the rationale for the BVN, Musa emphasised the need for bank customers to register for the BVN before the deadline, rather than wait for few days to the deadline, resulting into rowdy banking halls.    His comments and emphasis on the implication of not registering for the BVN, however filled a major hole in the communication of the BVN to customers. He said, “If you don’t register for the BVN by October 31st, you will not be able to receive money into your account or withdraw from it. You will not be able to operate the account”.

Registering for the BVN

That is why the media should help us spread this message to the public so that they would register for the BVN on time. The media should not wait till one week to the deadline before doing a countdown, the countdown should begin now, and it should be everyday”.

Good talk. But the industry should take responsibility for the countdown. The industry, led by the CBN should develop publicity materials that would run on daily or weekly basis across the major print and electronic print media. This should be complemented with countdown messages embedded in text and email alerts banks send to their customers, as well as banners with countdown messages prominently displayed in banking halls.

Most importantly, the countdown messages should emphasise the fact that customers that fail to register for the BVN by October 31st  would not be able to operate their account.

One of the revelations from forum is the fact that more bank customers have registered for the BVN. Musa disclosed that the number of customers that have registered for the BVN increased by one million from 18 million in July to 19 million in August. These include all the journalists at the forum. Thus,  Musa was preaching to the converted.

To be continued next week (Send comments and enquiries to  [email protected])