TheCable

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has extended the deadline for the bank verification number (BVN) registration to October 31, 2015.

The bank said the extension was meant to facilitate smooth completion of registration.

Dipo Fatokun, CBN’s director for banking and payment system department, disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday.

“It has come to our notice that the BVN registration has elicited tremendous interest from the Nigerian bank customers who crowded the banking halls in order to beat the deadline,” the statement read.

“In view of the foregoing, it has become imperative for the banks to extend the timeline for all customers to have the BVN.

“The deadline for the enrolment is hereby extended from June 30 to October 31.”

The statement added that the extension would give Nigerian bank customers in the Diaspora, enough time to enrol into the programme, noting that the guideline for the enrolment of diaspora account holders was being finalised and would be released soon.

Before the extension of the deadline, CBN had threatened that those who were yet to partake in the exercise would be denied access to banking services from July 1.

The exercise started in February 2014 and was initially meant to close on June 30, prompting customers across the nation to besiege banks in the last few days.

The process entails capturing the data of customers in order to generate unique numbers for proper identification.