CBN extends BVN deadline till October 31

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has extended the deadline for the Bank Verification Number (BVN) till October 31.
A statement from the CBN said the decision was due to “the passionate appeals from the public for the extension of the deadline for the Bank Verification Number (BVN) for the biometric registration exercise” after the expiration of the earlier deadline yesterday.
The CBN said it “noticed with satisfaction the level of compliance among the banking public and also acknowledged the difficulties which the people have gone through in the last few days in the quest to beat the registration timeline. More so, arrangements are being made to enroll bank customers in Diaspora in the next few days”.

To this end, the CBN said it “considered it necessary to grant extension for the exercise to enable all bank customers to enroll in the BVN and to facilitate hitch free completion”.
However, before the CBN announced the extension, a pro-Democracy Non-governmental organisation – Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) “condemned the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria to subject Nigerian account holders to untold hardship because of the deadline unilaterally imposed on the so called Banks Verification Number.”
Customers also invaded the banks to try to meet the deadline.
HURIWA called for “the registration to be permanent and seamless rather than being undertaken in a military fashion”.
HURIWA urged the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emiefiele “to either make the BVN registration a continuous exercise or be prepared to face avalanches of class law suits and other Civil disobedience strategies to be worked out by like minded human rights activists all across Nigeria.”
Many in Asaba, the Delta State capital yesterday visited their banks to beat the bank verification exercise.
Traders in Onitsha and its environs also thronged branches of commercial banks to meet the deadline.
A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) who visited most banks in Onitsha metropolis on Tuesday, observed a large number of customers queuing for registration.
NAN reports that the number of customers undergoing the process was more in old generation banks compared to their new generation counterparts.
Some of the customers on the queue complained that the process was to slow due to internet connectivity problems; they, therefore, appealed to the CBN to extend the registration period.
Mr Nnamdi Okoro, a businessman, told NAN in one of the old generation banks, that most of the customers had arrived the bank as early as 8 a.m., but only a few had completed the exercise at about noon.
“All other process of the exercise had been smooth except the actual biometric and fingerprint capturing as well as confirmation from the system,” Okoro said.
Chief Donatus Ezike, the Secretary, Plastics and Allied Products Market, Onitsha, appealed to the CBN to see the need to extend the exercise in order to accommodate millions of people not captured before the deadline.
“I must commend the bank staff for their wisdom to communicate their difficulties to us, the customers; but it is clear with this difficulties that the CBN should see the need to extend the date,” Ezike, who banks with an old generation bank, said.
Mr Tony Chukwurah, a staff of one of the new generation banks, said that customers had been given more than enough time to do the exercise as most banks had put out advertisements to reach their customers.
Chukwurah, however, expressed the hope that the CBN would extend the date to accommodate those who had genuine excuse for not participating in the exercise before now.
“This would be an eye opener for Nigerians to take civic and public exercises serious as it ought to be,” he said.
NAN reports that the CBN introduced the BVN registration to check banking fraud associated with multiple account operation by an individual with different names, addresses and other identities.