….Says BVN Enrolment Surges To 57Mn
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, on Tuesday disclosed that sundry initiatives by the apex bank to promote digital payment system in the country were achieving the desired results with ATM transactions volume surging by 99.76% between 2021 and this year.
Emefiele, who made this remark in his opening delivered at the 34th Seminar for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors with the theme “Implementing a Robust Payment Architecture: Prospects, Opportunities and Challenges” in Calabar, Cross River State, said that the initiatives and programmes were intended to drive innovation and meet emerging market needs in the payment system landscape.
The CBN Governor, represented by the apex bank’s Director, Monetary Policy Department, Mahmoud Hassan, explained that a key objective is the use of the payments system as a tool to achieve the financial inclusion goals of the country, adding that through these programmes, the CBN has successfully repositioned the Nigerian payments system to be highly competitive and acclaimed as one of the most innovative globally.
According to him, many payment products including instant payments, QR codes and Central Bank Digital Currency – eNaira – that abound in the country are not readily available in some other countries.
Emefiele expatiated: “These efforts have culminated into a significant increase in the total volume of transactions on Electronic Payment Channels. While the use of cash and cheques continued to diminish, web-based transactions such as POS, NIP, ATM and MMO have increased substantially.
“For instance, between 2021 and 2022, the volume of transactions via electronic channels such as ATM, POS, WEB, MMO and NIP increased by 99.76, 1,775.72, 35,502.58, 2,413.44 and 836.50 percent, respectively”, he added.
The CBN Governor, who also disclosed that the Bank Verification Number (BVN) had increased to over 57 million now, expressed his delight that this suite of initiatives had helped to open a vista of new opportunities in the payment ecosystem, stressing that with these revolutionary technological developments, the market has witnessed the deployment of new payment solutions.
He clarified: “Bank Verification Number, BVN has continued to feature in our KYC requirements as part of plans to ease the constraint associated with poor identification of banking customers.
“We have continued to support the aggressive enrollment of prospective banking customers in the informal sector onto the BVN system.
“With a total enrollment of 57,431,355 as at 31st March 2023, the BVN is supporting the development of credit profiles for banking customers, which will assist in improving access to credit for credit-worthy borrowers by banks”, Emefiele added.
He listed some of the technological tools as the Artificial Intelligence (AI), quantum computing and contactless payments are some of the areas creating new opportunities for operators.
Emefiele also pointed out that the recently launched Payments System Vision (PSV) 2025 contained several recommendations aimed at driving implementation of some of the latest technologies to ensure the system’s resilience and safety.
To sustain the successes achieved so far and further enhance the efficiency and security of the payment system, he described the support of all financial institutions and stakeholders as imperative and expressed the apex bank management’s readiness to continue to strengthen the institutional and regulatory frameworks to further develop the payments system and promote the usage of secure and credible electronic products as stipulated in the PSV 2025 strategic plan.
