The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed that all transactions consummated by a Bureau De Change must have the Bank Verification Number (BVN) of custom with effect from August 1, 2015.
In a circular to all licensed BDCs, the CBN said the information must be included in their returns to CBN. In the case of corporate customers the BVN of a director or authorized signatory of the entity must be provided.
To ensure a hitch-free implementation of the directive, the CBN said the list of all lincensed BDCs would be provided by the CBN, to the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) to enable the company provide the necessary hardware token that would be used by the BDC in accessing the NIBSS website.
NIBSS has been directed to make a portal available on its website to facilitate access for the confirmation/validation of the BVN number of the BDCs’ customers.
The circular which was signed by Kevin Amugo, director, financial policy and regulation department, CBN, stated that this is to ensure that correct BVN is recorded by the BDC and included in the returns to the CBN. According to the Apex bank, a token transaction fee of N100 would be paid for each access on the portal, while NIBSS will provide the training manual for an “easy to use” operation of the system.
Furthermore, all licensed BDCs are required to provide the BVN of all their director before August 15, 2015 as failure may affect their continued participation in the foreign exchange market.
The CBN noted that any BDC operator who fails to provide the required information in his returns, or provides a wrong BVN would be penalized. First offenders will be required to pay a fine of N1 million while any subsequent violation of the requirement may lead to the revocation of operating license of the BDC.
