It is no longer news that today, Saturday, October 31, 2015, is the deadline given by the Godwin Emefiele-led Central Bank of Nigeria to all bank customers in the country to get their Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) or they will no longer have access to their accounts. It is also no longer news that the CBN, in spite of the fact that there are still millions of bank customers who are yet to comply with that directive, has stated for the umpteenth time that the deadline won’t be extended again.
What may be news is that even with CBN’s tough decision and stance – that is if eventually you are unable to do yours before the end of today – you can still have access to your bank accounts. Yes, you can! And here is how, as revealed to YES INTERNATIONAL! Magazine by one ingenious insider: ‘Just go and open a new bank account, secure a BVN and then link it with your old account and instantly you would have access again to the old account.’
It’s that simple, added the insider on the mandatory CBN exercise which initially ended on July 30, 2015, but was extended again to October 31, which is today, to enable more people participate.
The BVN exercise is basically about capturing the biometrics of all bank customers, both at home and in the Diaspora. It will also help in checking and arresting money laundering as well as other fraudulent bank transactions. Even the perennial issue of ghost workers will be halted with this.
The CBN and all the banks had embarked on a massive sensitization campaign on nearly all media to get every bank customer to comply. But with the pockets of complaints erupting here and there, it is now obvious that millions still haven’t sorted out their’s. But thank God, they now have a way out.