BANK Verification Number (BVN) enrolments in Nigeria rose to 67.8 million as of December 2025, according to new data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), reflecting sustained growth in the country’s biometric identification framework within the financial sector.
The figure represents an increase of 4.3 million from the 63.5 million BVNs recorded in 2024, continuing a steady upward trend over the past five years. NIBSS data shows enrolments stood at 51.9 million in 2021, 56 million in 2022, 60.1 million in 2023, before rising to 63.5 million in 2024 and 67.8 million in 2025 — a 6.8 per cent year-on-year growth.
The expansion has been largely driven by regulatory directives and policy enforcement by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), aimed at deepening financial inclusion and strengthening identity verification across the banking system.
As of August 2025, NIBSS also recorded 325.6 million active bank accounts nationwide. The figure covers all account types — savings, current, and corporate — across all deposit money banks, with many customers operating multiple accounts.
Introduced on February 14, 2014, the BVN initiative remains one of Nigeria’s most significant digital reforms in the financial sector. Designed to curb identity fraud, the system assigns each bank customer a unique 11-digit number linked to biometric data, including fingerprints and facial images, enabling a single, unified financial identity across all banks.
Analysts continue to describe the BVN framework as a more robust safeguard against identity theft than traditional PINs and passwords, noting its role in improving transparency, security, and trust within Nigeria’s banking ecosystem.