Customers in Awka flood banks, seek extension of deadline

Commercial banks in Awka are having problems contending with the surge of customers who wish to obtain their Bank Verification Numbers (BVN)which would elapse on June 30.

The customers who became serious about the BVN since the deadline was set expressed frustrations with the exercise as the branches of the banks they went to could not attend to them.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) had some months ago directed all commercial banks to carry out biometric and data capturing of their customers for them to have up to date information about them.

Some of the bank customers who spoke to NAN on Tuesday appealed to the CBN to consider extending the deadline.

Mr Jude Nwokike, a customer with one of the new generation banks, said he had consistently been going to the bank since two weeks without success.

Nwokike said this was because only one branch of a particular bank was serving a high population density area as Awka.

He called for decentralisation of the registration centres so that it would be seamless, while calling on CBN to extend the deadline.

Also, Mr Azubuike Okoro, a financial consultant, said the delay to undergo the BVN exercise by customers was unfortunate and typical of every Nigerian.

Okoro, a former branch controller of CBN, Awka, said the June 30 deadline should not be postponed by the Bankers Committee as people would likely relax again if there was an extension.

He said that anybody who did not get his BVN by the deadline should not be allowed to transact business in any bank until such a customer produced it.

“It is bad that our people refuse to do the right thing until the last minute, this process has been on for about a year now and since the deadline is just a few days away, customers are pressurising and lamenting over BVN.

“The deadline should not be extended and the machines are expensive, so it is not feasible to get them at all branches, because after the exercise, there may not be need for them again.

“So, my advice is that any customer who fails to obtain BVN should not be allowed to withdraw or deposit money; the policy itself is very healthy for our financial system,” Okoro said.

A business man who simply identified himself as Mike said he was making a last minute effort to undergo the exercise because he was afraid that he could lose his life savings if he failed to get before June 30.

Mike urged commercial banks to deploy the machines they were using to conduct the BVN to more branches so that all their customers would be captured before the expiration date.

A manager of one of the banks at Eke-Awka who pleaded for anonymity, admitted that there had been increase in the number of customers seeking BVN in the bank.

The manager, however, said that the bank was helpless in managing the crowd.

He said that the centralisation of the BVN process was the policy of the bank, adding that its staff would only work with what they have and attend to those they were able to.

The manager, however, expressed the hope that the deadline might be extended to accommodate others.

When NAN visited a branch of FCMB in the city, the customer-service agent told our correspondent that the bank was only taking the bio-data of their customers