According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Bank Verification Number (BVN) provided by the bank in partnership with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has no expiration date.
The bank responded to assertions made in a viral video that the BVN expires after ten years.
According to Dr. Isa AbdulMumin, the CBN’s Acting Director of Corporate Communications, “contrary to these claims, we wish to clarify that the BVN issued in Nigeria has no expiry date.”
“Once a customer’s biometrics have been captured and enrolled in the NIBSS database, the BVN is permanent.”
He stated that the CBN created the Regulatory Framework for BVN in 2021 stipulated that customers could only change their records due to certain conditions spelt out in the document and after being cleared by relevant authorities.
The CBN urged bank customers in the country, especially those whose biometrics had been captured by the system, to continue using their unique identifiers as they last their entire lifetime.