As the October 31st deadline of the Bank Verification Number beckons, the House of Representatives yesterday summoned the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, for further questioning over the policy.
This followed a motion moved on the floor of the House indicating that Bureaux De Change operators were also directed to comply with the policy.
CBN officials had some weeks back appeared before the House to defend the policy.
But a lawmaker from Kano State, Danburan Nuhu who moved the motion told the House that the CBN had directed operators that anybody seeking foreign exchange must provide their BVN to the operators before they could access hard currencies.
Nuhu claimed that the development had caused anxiety in the market, as most clients were wary of disclosing their BVNs to third parties because of the security implications.
Nuhu maintained that there were 2,765 approved BDCs in the country, adding that the plan to use BVN to stem money laundering could become counter-productive owing to the “proliferation of the BVN of Nigerians.”
“The House is concerned that this will make the vital financial records of Nigerians easily accessible to dubious people.
“In this era of Internet fraud, this will endanger our people’s hard-earned money and cause even more problems than it was meant to solve.”
As stated by Nuhu, it was not necessary to compel the customers of BDCs to disclose their BVNs because of the apparent security implications.
However, the House resolved to summon Emiefele to throw more light on the overall implication of the policy.
It also called for an extension of the deadline of the application of the policy to give more room for sensitisation.