By Our Correspondent

To ensure that its teeming customers in the Diaspora are not denied access to their accounts and other financial services in Nigeria, Stanbic IBTC Bank, a member of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, has expanded the registration process for the Biometric Verification Number (BVN) for its customers at designated centres across the world.

The bank assured its customers that efforts have been made to ensure that the registration is easy, seamless and fast through the strategic location of enrolment points at VFS Global and Online Integrated Solutions (OIS) centres across the world.

The Central Bank of Nigeria had earlier announced extension of the BVN registration deadline for bank customers who live abroad till June 2016 to ensure that they are all reached and their biometrics captured.

The registration guidelines provided by the CBN for clients in Diaspora show that BVN enrolment can be done at offshore branches of any Nigerian bank and through the service centres of the two service providers, Online Integrated Solutions (OIS) and VFS Global, the apex bank engaged.

The centres provided to further drive enrolment are: London, Leicester and Manchester in the United Kingdom; Dubai; Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in China; Jeddah, Riyadh and Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia; Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles in the US. Others are: Toronto and Vancouver in Canada; Paris, France; Rome, Italy; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Ankara, Turkey; Kiev, Ukraine; New Delhi, India; Moscow, Russia; Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney in Australia.

Executive Director, Personal and Business Banking, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Mr Babatunde Macaulay, said the bank will continue to provide the necessary support and assistance to its clients in Diaspora to ensure that they are all properly registered.

“It is our desire to ensure that no customer is denied access to their accounts or other financial services as a result of failure to do the BVN enrolment, which is why we are doing everything possible to speed up the registration process by providing relevant information and support to account holders who live abroad,” Macaulay said.