Customers to provide National Identity Number at banks – CBN

By Babajide Komolafe
LAGOS —The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, yesterday, imposed fresh condition for owning a bank account saying that from January 8, 2013, the National Identity Number, NIN, would be criteria for owning and operating a bank account in the country.

To this effect, from September 1 this year,  CBN in conjunction with the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, and the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System, NIBSS, would commence  a three months  enrollment exercise for all  existing banks’ customers to capture their biometrics and issue  to them NIN as well as a General Purpose Identity Card.

This was announced via a circular to all deposit money banks, microfinance banks and primary mortgage institutions, PMIs, on the use of the National Identity Number, NIN, for the Know Your Customer, KYC, verification.

Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Interior, Rep. Umar Bature (r) being captured for the National Identity Number (NIN) at the National Identity Management Commission Abuja recently. NAN Photo.

The circular was signed by Mr. Dipo Fatokun, Director, Banking and Payments System Department.

The circular said: “As part of CBN’s efforts to bolster the banking industry and the entire financial system, the Bank in the recent past commenced steps to overhaul the KYC processes in banks, including the recently concluded customer account verification exercise.

In furtherance to this exercise, the Bankers Committee at a recent meeting resolved to adopt the new National Identity Number, NIN, which is expected to be issued from September 2012 by the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, in conjunction with its front-ends partners as the new basis for KYC for financial transactions going forward.

“As you may be aware, the NIMC was established by the NIMC Act 2007, to establish, operate, maintain and manage the new National Identity Management System, NIMS, which is the avenue for achieving government desire to develop and deepen the customer credit sector, enable e-payment, facilitate financial inclusion, develop commerce and harmonise all existing and future identification scheme.

The output of the NIMC is the issuance of national Identity numbers, i.e. an eleven digit number which is unique and unchangeable to an individual and the issuance of a general multi-purpose card, GMPC, based on chip technology to all citizen and legal residents in Nigeria.

The new system will be backed-up by a central standardised identity data base which will in turn enable financial institutions verify the identity of their customers on an online-real time basis using their NIN biometrics.

“Consequently, the CBN hereby directs that starting 8th January 2013, the NIN would be become the basis for KYC verification and compliance by all  deposit money banks and by extension other deposit taking financial institutions including  microfinance banks and primary mortgage institutions, PMIs, in Nigeria.

“Presently, NIBSS is working in collaboration with the NIMC to integrate the Nigeria Central Switch, NCS, operated by NIBSS with the NIMS. This integration will enable banks to conduct identity verification on NIMS through NIBSS and will enable NIBSS to provide identity related value added service to banks e.g. Automatic Bank Referencing.”

“In furtherance of this directive, the front-end partners, FEPs, of the NIMC have agreed with NIMC, CBN, and NIBSS that starting from 1st of September 2012, they would commence an enrolment exercise for all banks’ customers nationwide with a view to capturing their biometrics, issuing them the National Identity Numbers (NIN) and the General Multi-purpose Identity Cards (GMPC), as well as providing verification infrastructure for linking their bank accounts to the issued NIN within the NIMC data base.

This enrollment exercise is planned to be completed by the 31st December 2012.”