Citigroup Incorporated has lauded government for its efforts towards addressing impersonation in the country, saying this made the country conductive for the establishment of consumer banking business.
The Managing Director, Citibank Nigeria Ltd., Mr. Akinsowon Dawodu, in an interview with a wire service, said lack of identification security as been impeding personal banking in the country in the past.
He noted that Citibank is planning to verve into consumer banking in the country, because individuals dealing with banks are increasingly “who they say they are”.
Part of the efforts made the government to tackle identity challenge in financial sector is the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directive that all lenders in the country from February 2014 should carry out Bank Verification Number (BVN) registration for all the customers.
The BVN registration that requires bank customers to provide fingerprint identification, was supposed to end on June 2015, but the apex bank had to extend the deadline to October 31, 2015 to enable more Nigerians enrol for the exercise.
The CBN stated that BVN registration for Nigerians in diasporas, who have bank accounts in the country would commence on July 11, 2015.
The Citibank boss reasoned that the system, combined with a growing network of credit bureaus that collect information on customers, “makes the consumer proposition fairly viable for an organization like us,” adding that the bank is set to explore the opportunities it offers.
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