Almost 60 Million Nigerians Register for BVN as CBN Deadline Looms

As the deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on December 18, 2023, for Bank Verification Number (BVN) registration approaches, close to 60 million Nigerians have completed the registration process. The latest BVN registration data, released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System and obtained by AMBusiness, reveals that the number now stands at 59.9 million.

The most recent data from NIBSS, as of September 12, 2023, showed the registered BVNs at 58.7 million. Despite the delays in registration earlier this year, the recent announcement by the CBN stating that all bank accounts without a BVN would be frozen from April 2024 has spurred a surge in BVN registrations.

The latest statistics of 59.9 million indicate that over 1 million new BVNs have been registered in the last three months alone. Since the beginning of the year, the BVN database has shown progressive growth, standing at 56.5 million at the end of 2022, with an additional 4.8 million registrations reported in that year.

In 2023, the BVN database has expanded by 3.4 million, and with only a few days left in the year, this number continues to rise.

While the official data for the number of active bank accounts in 2022 and 2023 is yet to be released, it is expected to be higher than the 133.5 million reported in December 2021. The substantial gap between the registered BVNs and the total number of bank accounts in the country remains noteworthy.