Theo Founderf First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Otunba Michael Olasubomi Balogun, is dead.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that the Bank Verification Number (BVN) has no expiry date.

According to the CBN, once a customer’s biometrics have been captured and enrolled in the database of NIBSS, the BVN remains for life.

The regulatory Framework for BVN issued by the CBN in 2021 stipulates that customers can only change their records due to certain conditions.

The CBN therefore urged Nigerians to disregard news on the expiration date for the BVN.

The bank stated that the BVN remains for life, as it has no expiry date.

This was disclosed in a statement by the Acting-Director, Corporate Communications, Alhaji Isa Abdulmumin, reacting to claims of expiration by a national newspaper.

Alhaji Isa Abdulmumin said the Bank Verification Number (BVN) issued in Nigeria remains for life and has no expiry date, citing that the claim was completely false, and urged advised bank customers to ignore it, he added:

“The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria has been drawn to reports suggesting that the Bank Verification Number issued by the Bank in collaboration with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) expires after a ten-year period.

“Contrary to these claims, we wish to clarify that the BVN issued in Nigeria has no expiry date.

“Once a customer’s biometrics have been captured and enrolled in the database of NIBSS, the BVN remains for life”.

He added that the Regulatory Framework for BVN issued by the CBN in 2021 stipulates that customers can only change their records due to certain conditions spelt out in the document and after being cleared by relevant authorities.

“Therefore, we urge bank customers in the country, especially those whose biometrics have been captured by the system, to continue using their unique identifiers as they last their entire lifetime.”

The number of bank account owners in Nigeria with Bank Verification Number (BVN) increased to 57 million as of April 9, 2023.

This was revealed in the latest BVN registration data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).

However, the data showed that registration for the BVN has slowed since the beginning of this year despite the recent moves by the Central Bank of Nigeria to close all bank accounts not linked.

At the end of 2022, the BVN database stood at 56.5 million. This shows that banks had recorded only about 500,000 new BVN registrations in the first three months of this year plus nine days in April. This is far lower than the average of 400,000 registrations per month recorded last year.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has directed its officials across the country to go round and monitor cash dispensing situations at the commercial banks.

This is coming ahead of today’s National Executive Council, NEC meeting, leaders of orfficials of state councils of NLC and industrial union affiliates are to take pictorial evidence of the actual situations at the banks, “whether the banks are dispensing cash or not, and report same to the NLC headquarters.”

The monitoring which ends by 12.30 pm will enable the NEC meeting that will commence by 1:00 p.m.at the Labour House, Abuja, takes a final decision on tomorrow’s planned nationwide strike over the cash crunch in the country.

The National leadership of NLC gave the directive yesterday (Monday, March 27).

An official of NLC who spokelsaid, “Yes, the directive was given yesterday. Union leaders are to go around their areas to monitor commercial banks this Morning before 12.30pm and show pictorial evidence of the situation at the banks.

“Whether they are dispensing cash or not. The pictorial evidencesl are to be forwarded to Congress headquarters to be us assess the activities of Commercial banks before the NEC meeting by 1pm to enable us take a final decision on tomorrow’s planned industrial action.”