Rights body slams "autocratic" implementation of BVN

Okoro Chinedu  
16:18 01/07/2015
Lagos - The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria(HURIWA) has appealed to the government to intervene amid the chaos that followed the implementation of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) scheme.
Tuesday marked the deadline to register for the exercise.

This culminated uncontrolled crowds at the different branches of local banks, which made business transactions almost impossible.

HURIWA slated the Central Bank of Nigeria’s project.
“The President (Muhammadu Buhari) must stop these broad day attempts by bank owners to rob poor depositors of their hard earned financial resources under the guise of BVN registration with a militarised deadline,” the organisation.

The pro-democracy organisation said in many countries “these arbitrary measures to steal and divert depositors’ money such as BVN registration with compulsory but unilateral deadlines are treated as a crime against humanity.”

HURIWA raised concern members of the public had not been properly consulted.
“If Nigeria insists on practicing democracy then all these autocratic measures carried out without people's inputs and consents must be consigned to the dustbin of history. This attempt to steal our money must be overturned.”

It pointed out that some locals were outside the country when the deadline passed.
“What happens to many Nigerians who have money in Nigerian banks but who are outside Nigeria for different reasons throughout this imposed period for BVN registration? This is pure robbery and must be defeated in a similar way that law enforcement authorities seek to crush criminals.”

The BVN deadline has since been extended to the end of October to give Nigerian bank customers in the Diaspora time to register.

According to experts, with the increasing incidents of compromise on conventional security systems (password and PIN), there is a high demand for greater security on access to sensitive or personal information in the banking system, hence the implementation of BVN.

The BVN gives each bank customer a unique identity across the Nigerian banking industry that can be used for easy identification and verification at point-of-banking operations.

- CAJ News