What is the BVN?
A BVN is similar to a social security number, except it is used by banks and other financial organizations to identify an individual based on the information associated with their bank account. Following the completion of your biometric registration, you were given a one-of-a-kind number consisting of 11 digits.
The term “biometric registration” refers to the process of identifying a person based on their physiological characteristics, such as their fingerprints, voice, or face traits, among other things.
On February 14, 2014, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in collaboration with all Nigerian banks, launched a centralized biometric identification system under the name Bank Verification Number (BVN). This was done in an effort to address the growing problem of data breaches involving customer security information such as passwords and PINs, as well as the difficulties that banks have with managing customers’ identities.
Since that time, the BVN has been utilized in the identification process for clients. However, many individuals have trouble obtaining their BVN and gaining access to financial services because they either forget their numbers or don’t have a safe place to store them.
You will not, thankfully, be required to go inside the banking hall in order to receive your BVN. On your mobile device, you can verify your BVN number from any location, and doing so will not compromise your privacy or safety in any way. Then you can save it for future use.
All telecom providers in Nigeria enable users to perform this task.
How to check your BVN on MTN, Airtel, GLO, and 9mobile
Before you can utilize this service, the very first thing you need to do is make sure that the phone number you intend to use is the same one that was used to register the BVN. If you enrolled with MTN, you will not be able to verify your BVN using a line provided by Airtel.
After that has been established, you are now free to proceed with checking your BVN using the following easy steps:
1. Navigate to the dialer on your phone and enter the USSD code *565*0#.
2. You will need to hold off for a while before the 11-digit number appears.
3. Make sure you copy the number. You have the option of saving it for later use or copying it to use right now. On the other hand, the service is not free, and a fee of 20 naira will be deducted from your total for the transaction. Those who do not have the financial means to tip telecoms the whole twenty dollars each time they check their BVN may, therefore, consider conserving the money for subsequent usage.
It is important to keep in mind that the procedure for checking your BVN is not only the same across all lines, but it is also quite comparable across all banks. If you are a customer of either GTB or UBA, you will use the same code to check your BVN because each individual is given a single, distinct BVN that is utilized by all of the banks. This indicates that even if you have multiple bank accounts in Nigeria, you will only need one BVN to link all of them back to you. This is true even if you have accounts with all of the banks in Nigeria.