Banks begin biometric registration of customers Monday.

The Deposit Money Banks will on Monday commence the biometric registration of their customers, the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc, the organisation coordinating the project, has said.

This is coming about four months after the project was inaugurated by the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Lamido Sanusi, in Lagos on February 14.

Banks had, for the third time, failed to commence the exercise last week.

The biometric registration is expected to lead to the issuance of a uniform and unique identification number called Bank Verification Number to every bank customer across the country.

Sanusi said the biometric project represented a milestone in the financial industry as the BVN would help to mitigate fraud, identify theft and enhance credit advancement to customers

The Managing Director, NIBSS, Mr. Ade Shonubi, in a statement on Wednesday, said the rollout of the BVN registration of customers by banks on Monday signified the end of the pilot phase of the project.

Shonubi, who also doubles as the Head of the BVN Project Management team, noted that over 7,000 BVNs had been issued by 21 banks and the NIBSS to existing internal bank customers during the pilot phase.

According to him, the enrolments and BVN issuance were achieved across 44 bank sites that included 21 bank headquarters.

The NIBSS boss, however, pointed out that the biometric registration exercise of the banking public commencing on Monday would take place in 1000 bank branches located in Lagos only.

The rollout of the BVN solution for the identification and verification of bank customers on June 16, according to the Shonubi, is preceding a nationwide rollout billed to commence in coming months.

He said this was in alignment with the phased approach adopted in executing the three-tiered ‘know your customer’ and the cashless policy of the CBN.

On February 14, 2014, the CBN had heralded the pilot phase of the BVN project deployment which was scheduled to run to May 31st, 2014 after which full rollout to bank branches was to follow.

Shonubi said, “We are adopting a phased rollout approach starting with Lagos State. It commences on June 16, 2014, at 1,000 bank branches, after taking out the pilot branches, out of the 1,410 bank branches in the state. Across the nation at full rollout, 10,000 enrolment sets will be deployed across 5,000 bank branches, implying deployment of two enrolment sets per bank branch.

“In line with the commitment of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Banker’s Committee to the financial enlightenment of Nigerians, all possible knowledge gaps will be closed through bespoke awareness programmes, customer education and engagement initiatives to ensure massive uptake of the BVN by existing bank customers.”

The NIBSS managing director maintained that the pilot phase of the BVN registration of bank customers served as a model and basis for the rollout of the solution to existing bank customers.

The BVN initiative involves the capturing of an individual’s basic biometric data information which includes the facial image, the 10 fingerprints as well as other unique features of that individual.

It will utilise the biometric technology system for verification and secure authentication of the identity of bank customers and ultimately as a means of authenticating customer’s identity at the point of banking transactions.