Central Bank of Nigeria and the Bankers’ Committee have started the Bank Verification Number (BVN) classification (BVN 2.0) plan that allows both the rich and poor in rural areas access financial services.
Governor, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, who broke the news at the end of the 11th Bankers’ Committee retreat in Ogere, Ogun State, explained that BVN will now be classified into two, BVN Premium and BVN Lite.
What it means: BVN Premium covers customers that can provide the 18 basic requirements for a complete BVN enrolment.
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The BVN Lite requires minimal documentations like name and phone number for bank customers, especially those at the rural areas that do not meet the full requirements.
Why it matters: The development would enable such grassroots customers, mainly the poor, conduct minimal financial services and reduce financial exclusion rate for Nigeria.
The initiative, which is in collaboration with the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) and Mobile Money Operators (MMOs), would ensure more Nigerians brought into the financial system.
He said, “The BVN 2.0 classification scheme will help bring more people into the financial system and reduce the financial exclusion rate.
“Know Your Customer (KYC) scheme is part of what will be migrated into the BVN Lite. However, there are people who are currently financially excluded, like people in our rural communities that carry phones, but not having financial services. With the collaboration of NCC, we are putting this BVN arrangement to allow them conduct minimal financial services.
“It should be possible for us to migrate this people into the BVN lite arrangement where they can conduct minimal financial services, not just banking services, but minimal financial services, insurance and anything you want to conduct in terms of finance, e-payment, or anything, you can do it with the aid of your phone. Bringing them into financial system will help to increase the rate of financial inclusion and reduce exclusion rate.”
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How it affects you: With the benefits of the BVN to bank customers and the economy, the CBN boss said that there is a need to consolidate and move BVN to BVN 2.0.
“This entails for instance to reclassify and segregate transactions that could be done on BVN. We have two classifications. The existing BVN that we have in the system has about 18 lines of information. If you are on BVN lite there is a limit to the kind of transactions you can do in terms of deposit and in terms of loans,” he added.
“The important thing is that we want to make you financially included where you can conduct basic banking services. Our people in the rural communities who have BVN lite will later be migrated to the BVN premium when you meet all the requirements,” he stated in a The Nation’s report.
About BVN: The CBN’s initiative was introduced into the banking sector in 2014 and has since enrolled over 40 million bank customers into the scheme and targets taking the number of BVN-linked accounts to 100 million in the next five years.
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The scheme, which gives each bank customer unique identification, was meant to revolutionise the banking and payment systems while ensuring safety of depositors’ funds.
So the Nigerian government want to use the CBN to collect tax from every Nigerian by encouraging all to have Bank accounts. Well the time will come Nigerians will ask where is there Tax. Trade carefully with technical Taxation from all plans.
This is a good development. With my understanding the poor living in the rural area will have less opportunities to financial. If that is what you mean. Please check it again. Equal distribution of wealth, services, cares, socialization, health start at the equal distribution of CBN services.
It’s a good development. What we didn’t know is how will the users of bvn lite be taxed. Are they also going to be taxed in a robbery like manner the CBN does to the existing bank customers?
Seriously finding ways to put more Nigerians in d tax net, so as to have more funds to fill dia pockets, and doing little to reduce poverty or upgrade amenities dat are lying in waste…ajaokuta a vivid example.
The last paragraph has been completely hijacked by the FGN for its fiscal objectives and that remains the primary reason behind BVN in my opinion.
Please let me know what our banking sector is turning to yahoo yahoo or what what evil have we done being Nigerians instead of helping the poor masses that have a lot of furtune rather they are plotting on how to make them more down s as to continue enriching themselves please leaders have mercy on us
Obviously the BVN was suppose to be enable taxation. Paying taxes is not even an issue, so long as people can opt-in and pay all their taxes automatically from their bank account as a fixed percentage of their deposits.
common sense would have demanded both federal and state government agree what this fixed percentage should be for business accountants and personal accounts. So that if you choose to OPT-IN the amount is automatically taken from your deposit, nice and clean no stress by FIRS. FIRS then will send regular reports to each business and individual on how much they have taken and maybe total collected nationwide, along with the tax clearance.
Yes some large organisations or businesses that have complex transactions, might want to do manual approach of filing their taxes themselves, thats fine they can be audited by FIRS. Both nobody with a brain wants to be filing non-sense every month or every year and paying idiots unregulated 3rd party fees which can cost as much as half their share capital.
The big scam and the current problem with paying taxes in Nigeria is that there are to many taxes, the calculation process is to complex and also requiring 3rd party fees.
The unregulated 3rd parties fees is the main reason why taxation has remained complex in Nigeria, because thats how the Rent-seeking Accountants and Lawyers make monopoly money.
Whether you call it BVN3.0 sef the inalienable rights of human beings will always remain supreme to what ever non-sense you are doing. So to cut the long story short, your system will only work if you consider the inalienable rights of human beings.
*Corrections*
[Obviously the BVN was suppose to be used to enable taxation]
[business accounts]
Hi Nairametrics
The article mentioned just Name and Phone number as the requirements for registering on the BVN Lite. Are you sure those are the only data required? kindly respond with the other requirements if there are more.
Thanks.
In that case the Nigerian will definitely decide what will come better for they’re on life
In that case the Nigerian will definitely decide what will come better for they’re on life
Hello, I heard that BVN wil expire after 10 years and we will need to revalidate again. How true is this?