ABUJA: The Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) said its plans to extend the Bank Verification Number (BVN) project to China and India is hampered by delays in clearing project kits from their ports.
Speaking yesterday during the announcement of partnership between NIBSS and some telecom operators in Lagos, its Managing Director, Ade Shonubi, said some of the devices needed to commence Diaspora BVN registration in both countries are stuck in their ports.
He said: “We have been unable to get the devices out of the ports. The Customs in those countries are not co-operating with us”.
Shonubi said NIBSS is working in partnership with telcos to ensure that every one that has been enrolled on the BVN network gets his number through his phone by dialing specified code.
He said the USSD-BVN Notification Service, will assist the banking sector achieve seamless Know-Your -Customer (KYC) documentation process, and will boost customers’ access to credit.
The NIBSS boss also said the BVN will enable banks blacklist fraudulent customers and ensure they do not return back to the system.
Chief Marketing Officer, Etisalat, Francesco Anjelone, said the firm is fully in support of the USSD-BVN Notification Service, describing it as an innovation. He said Etisalat keyed into the project because there will be a creation of value for both industries. “The collaboration will strengthen the BVN project,” he said.
Senior Manager, Airtel, Adefolake Ogunbayo, said Airtel customers will start checking for their BVN from Wednesday next week. She described the partnership with NIBSS as a perpetual relationship that will lead to other services.
Aside China and India, the NIBSS also is working on extending the BVN project to Washington DC, Johannesburg, and Atlanta. Other cities participating in the scheme are Guangzhou, London, Leicester, Houston and New York City.
The OIS Services, handling the Diaspora project, is expected to capture necessary data for online transmission to NIBSS, which would thereafter generate the BVN and communicate same to the customer. The Diaspora customer are expected to forward their BVN to their local banks for linkage with their accounts.
The CBN has also reiterated its support for the BVN project. The regulator said the new guidelines on the BVN enrolment has authorised bank customers in Diaspora to present themselves for enrolment by using foreign based Nigerian banks.
“The first option is the customers of Nigerian banks to present themselves to the offshore branches or subsidiaries of any Nigerian banks for the BVN enrollment. The deployment of scanners and other devices to these locations have started in earnest,” it said.
