The Central Bank of Nigeria has extended the Bank Verification Number registration exercise for Nigerians abroad from January 31 to June 30, 2016.
A statement issued yesterday by the apex bank and signed by the Director of Banking Supervision, ‘Dipo, Fatokun, said the deadline for Diaspora customers BVN registration and linkage of accounts has been extended from January 31, 2016 to June 30 2016.
The CBN said the extension became necessary when it “observed through a recent survey, the low percentage of registration of Nigerian banks’ customers in Diaspora which may be attributed to lack of accessibility of registration centres and unavailability of registration centres in some cities where Nigerian population is high.”
To this end it listed 30 centres where Nigerians in Diaspora can register for their BVN, as plans are on to open more centres in locations with high Nigerian population. It therefore enjoined Nigerian banks’ customers who are yet to comply to do so before the expiration of the new deadline.
In the United States of America, centres have been cited in Washington DC, Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and San Fransisco. In the United Kingdom, two centres have bben cited in London as well a Leicester and Manchester.
There is also a centre in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, as well as Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa, and another centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in addition three in China, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The CBN said.
In Canada, centres have been opened in Toronto and Vancouver as well as Paris, France; other registration centres are open in Rome. Italy; Sau Paulo, Brazil; Kiev, Ukraine and New Delhi, India.
Meanwhile centres have been set up in Saudi Arabia (Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar) and Australia (Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth) each.
