Following the recent revelation by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun that majority of looters and government officials who live on ghost workers salaries have moved their illicit game to Micro Finance banks (MFBs) where Bank verification Number (BVN) policy was not extended to, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has relied on the observation to introduce the policy to Other Financial Institutions (OFIs).
OFIs include Microfinance Banks, Primary Mortgage Institutions and others.
Director of Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department, Mrs Tokunbo Martins, in a circular on the bank’s website on Monday, said that “Effective August 1, 2017, all customers without BVN linked to their accounts shall not be allowed to make withdrawals from those accounts”.
Findings have shown that since the restriction of transactions to bank account owners who have no BVN, there has been heavy movement of cash to OFIs from deposit banks by persons trying to evade the radar of the regulator and the anti-crime agencies. The BVN has brought sanity to banking to a reasonable degree.
Checks in some of the Lagos MFBs show gradual compliance by account holders, but the process is met with early hitches due to poor awareness on the side of the banks and even the CBN.
