How BVN Influenced Value Of Naira

The directive from the Central Bank Of Nigeria instructing bureau de change operators to demand details of Bank Verification Number (BVN) before selling dollars to their customers  is perceived to have impacted on the value of the naira.

The CBN gave the directive to ensure the money was used for the purpose intended.

As at Thursday, the naira was trading at N230 per dollar on the parallel market firmer than N232 last week while on the interbank market, it traded at N199.48 a dollar compared with the previous week’s N196.98 closing level, the Leadership reports.

”The BVN requirement is discouraging many people from buying dollars from the bureaux de change. Many of us now have unsold stock of dollars bought from the central bank because we cannot sell without asking our customers to provide the bank verification number,” bureau de change operator Harrison Owoh said.

”The introduction of the BVN has reduced demand for dollar on the bureaux de change segment causing the naira to remain unchanged at the parallel market,” another dealer said.

The BVN is an initiative of the CBN which is meant to verify the identity of bank’s customer and reduce fraud.

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.

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.

Posted in: News