“We are all Nigerians and this is a part of the world where people do not take things serious till deadline,” is how a banker sees the Bank Verification Number (BVN) registration process.

CEOAfrica has observed that despite the publicity given to the issue, Nigerians paid less attention to early verification. Now, customers are besieging the banks to perform the exercise at the eleventh hour. A situation Tola Osunrinde, who doesn’t want her bank and position published, described as the Nigerian way.

Osunrinde disclosed that quite a number of people with regards to elite don’t know why the BVN is in place. “Although bank has sent mails, text messages on BVN, to customers, most of them still feel it is unnecessary, which has put a lot of stress on workers and we know it is still part of our work.”

While some customers blamed their late attitude on ignorance, others accused bank officials of uncooperative attitude.

A woman who failed to disclose her personality said, “Bank officials didn’t send me message about the BVN till Friday; if they had sent it earlier, I would have done the registration before now.”

A student, Becky Gbadebo, who has been aware of the registration but didn’t take the registration seriously, regretted her actions and disclosed willing attitude towards such in the future.   

While talking about the implication of not registering, Tola said, “There would be restrictions on the account as from first of July. What is likely to happen is that there would be restrictions on people’s accounts, which is subject to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s guideline.

“If the CBN says we should give people more time, so be it, because BVN is a CBN regulation to safeguard bank accounts and reduce fraud to zero level.”

On the account of misplace in BVN, she said: “I do not think it would have much effect unlike you not doing it at all.”