Following a viral video that claimed the Bank Verification Number (BVN) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) would expire after 10 years, the CBN has denied the assertion.
PRNigeria conducted a fact-check and discovered that although a document on the CBN website from 2015 mentioned the expiry date, it has since been removed.
PRNigeria, utilizing its Fact-Checking tools, managed to retrieve the deleted document, which clearly stated that the BVN would expire after a decade.
However, the CBN released a statement on May 10, 2023, refuting the claim and asserting that the BVN has no expiry date.
The CBN clarified that once a customer’s biometrics are captured and enrolled in the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) database, the BVN remains valid for life.
While the CBN’s 2021 Regulatory Framework for BVN allows for record changes under specific conditions and after clearance by relevant authorities, the BVN itself does not expire.
Despite the previously published document indicating a 10-year expiration period for BVNs, the recent circular from the CBN confirms that BVNs remain valid indefinitely.
Therefore, the claim circulating in the video, which suggests the BVN expires after 10 years, is deemed misleading based on the information gathered by PRNigeria.
