United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has launched a short code number *919*6# through which customers can send their Biometric Verification Numbers (BVN) for link up with other banks.
“The process is very simple. All a customer has to do is to send his or her valid BVN from the telephone number that was used to open their account to the short code number and it will become automatically linked,” said Rasheed Adegoke, Director, Group Information Technology, UBA Plc.
According to him, the introduction of this simplified process was in response to some of the challenges associated with the ongoing BVN exercise.
“UBA has come up with this novel process to ensure that customers who already have their BVN do not have any issues submitting it to their alternate banks” explained Adegoke.
He said once customers submit their BVN through the code, they will get an immediate response letting them know whether their BVN is valid or incorrect. The responses will be accompanied by a phone number through which further enquiries can be made by the customers if required.
In addition to this phone number, customers can also reach UBA on social media though Facebook and twitter or by calling UBA’s Customer Fulfillment Centre for further clarifications.
The BVN is a unique number given to all bank customers in Nigeria who had their finger prints and pictures taken at bank branches around the country. Each customer’s biometric and personal data is attached to all bank accounts he or she operates whether personal or corporate. Individual customers have single BVNs no matter the number of accounts they operate in as many banks as they desire. Consequently customers are able to register for BVN in any of the banks in which they have accounts. Once they get their numbers, they are required to send them to all the banks in which they operate accounts.
The goal of the BVN is to uniquely verify the identity of each bank’s customer for ‘know your customer’ (KYC) purposes. An initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria, BVN helps to reduce fraud, increase the efficiency of banking operations and also enable customers access to future credit facilities. The deadline for all bank customers to enroll for BVN was recently extended to October 31, 2015.
UBA’s initiative will help give a tremendous boost to the overall success of the exercise. “With 2.7 million registrations as at today Monday July 6, 2015, UBA is currently the leading bank in BVN registrations among banks in Nigeria. We invite all customers to take advantage of this innovation, one of many initiatives of the bank to provide convenient banking solutions and excellent service to our customers” said Phillips Oduoza, Group Managing Director/CEO, UBA during the launch ceremony.
