CBN’s New BVN 2.0 is Designed to Cater to Bank Customers with Minimal Documentation, Here is How it Works

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently announced an upgrade to the existing Bankers Verification Number (BVN) being used in the country. This upgrade, known as BVN 2.0, separates BVN for individuals into two distinct categories: BVN Lite and BVN Premium.

The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, speaking at the end of the 11th Bankers’ Committee in Ogun state, said the purpose of this new upgrade was to create room for more people in the rural areas with little or no documentation to access basic banking services. With this provision, the city dweller and people in rural areas will now have access to banking services.

“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. We decided that we classify into BVN premium and BVN lite.

There should also be a system where people who are financially excluded can now be included. If you are on BVN lite there is a limit to the kind of transactions you can do in terms of deposit and of loans”

Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor

Here is how BVN2.0 Works

The focal point of the BVN2.0 is that minimal requirements are needed for enrollment. All that is needed for anyone to have a BVN Lite and start banking may not exceed the person’s phone number and name, according to the CBN.

The requirements of the BVN Premium, however, are much more and are listed below:

• A valid ID card
• Concise filling of all the 18 fields on the BVN enrollment form
• Biometrics capturing.

With the BVN Lite, customers can access basic insurance services and other services that financial organisations make available to owners of a BVN Lite.

“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.”

Godwin Emefiele

With more people getting access through programs like this, the financial exclusion indices will improve and more people will have access financial services in the nation.