Again, Reps summon CBN governor over BVN

Governor of central Bank, Mr Godwin Emiefele

With just days to the November 1 take-off date for the enforcement of Bank Verification Number by commercial banks, the House of Representatives on Wednesday summoned the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emiefele, for further questioning over the policy.

CBN officials had some weeks back appeared before the House to defend the policy.

But, Wednesday’s summon followed a separate motion, which informed the House of the fact that Bureaux De Change operators were also directed to comply with the policy.

A lawmaker from Kano State, Mr. Danburan Nuhu, told the House that the CBN had directed operators that anybody seeking foreign exchange must provide their BVN to the operators before they could access hard currencies.

Nuhu claimed that the development had caused anxiety in the market, as most clients were wary of disclosing their BVNs to third parties because of the security implications.

Nuhu who stated that there were 2,765 approved BDCs in the country, said the plan to use BVN to stem money laundering could become counter-productive owing to the “proliferation of the BVN of Nigerians.”

He spoke more, “The House is concerned that this will make the vital financial records of Nigerians easily accessible to dubious people.

“In this era of Internet fraud, this will endanger our people’s hard-earned money and cause even more problems than it was meant to solve.”

Nuhu said it was not necessary to compel the customers of BDCs to disclose their BVNs because of the apparent security implications.

However, the House resolved to summon Emiefele to throw more light on the overall implication of the policy.

It also called for an extension of the deadline of the application of the policy to give more room for sensitisation.

Source: Punch