As of March 2023, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), more than 57 million Nigerians will have Bank Verification Numbers (BVN).
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, revealed this in his remarks on Tuesday at the 34th Seminar for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors in Calabar.
Emefiele claimed that by removing the obstacles connected with inadequate client identification, BVN had continued to advance Nigeria’s banking industry in a favorable way.
He emphasized how Nigerians now have more access to finance as a result of the effort.
The head of the central bank stated that BVN has also aided businesses in their efforts to look into fraud and other similar offences.
“With a total enrollment of 57,431,355 as of the 31st of March 2023, the BVN is supporting the development of credit profiles for banking customers, which will assist in improving access to credit for credit-worthy borrowers by banks,” he said.
To collect the identities of all bank clients, the CBN initiated the BVN project on February 14, 2014, working with other partners.
Nigeria’s population is currently projected to be around 200 million people based on the most recent United Nations data.