Nigerian banks reportedly lost over 2 million customers between 2016 and 2017 following the enforcement of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) and other regulatory by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
According to statistics from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), the number of active bank accounts also reduced by 1.5 million, dropping from 65 million to 63.5 million.
The statistics obtained from the NIBSS website showed that the total number of bank customers dropped from 61 million in 2016 to 59 million in 2017.
The source, who works at one of the top five banks in the country, blamed the BVN for the low patronage of banking products, especially in the rural areas, where awareness was already very low.
According to NIBSS, the banking sector, however, made great strides in linking customers’ account using the Bank Verification Number (BVN).
The report showed that linked BVN accounts grew from 26 million in 2016, to 41.3 million in 2017.
