The Central Financial institution of Nigeria has restricted how typically Nigerians can replace the telephone quantity linked to their Financial institution Verification Quantity (BVN), capping it without delay in a lifetime.
In a round issued to banks and different monetary establishments on Thursday, the apex financial institution stated the brand new guidelines will take impact from Might 1, 2026.
The restriction is a part of new safeguards designed to cut back fraud dangers tied to Nigeria’s quickly rising digital funds ecosystem, the place cell numbers are central to authentication and account restoration.
Telephone numbers linked to BVNs play a crucial position in Nigeria’s banking infrastructure. They’re used for one-time passwords (OTPs), transaction alerts, and account restoration processes, making them a key level of vulnerability for fraudsters making an attempt to hijack financial institution accounts.
Launched in 2014, Nigeria’s BVN system is the foundational identification layer for the nation’s monetary companies sector. As of March 2026, BVN enrolment depend stood at 68.59 million.
By limiting how typically these numbers could be modified, the CBN goals to cut back the chance of identification manipulation and SIM-related fraud that may allow unauthorised entry to monetary accounts. Whereas there isn’t any remoted estimate of the monetary value of SIM fraud in Nigeria, the Nigeria Inter-Financial institution Settlement System says SIM-related compromises typically play a task in social engineering schemes, the nation’s main reason for fraud, which accounted for 62,901 circumstances in 2023.
Alongside the restriction, the CBN has additionally directed monetary establishments to ascertain a short lived watchlist for BVNs linked to suspicious exercise.
Underneath the brand new framework, a flagged BVN can stay on the watchlist for as much as 24 hours whereas the financial institution contacts the client to confirm the transaction. Throughout this era, the watchlist acts as a pause mechanism, giving monetary establishments time to analyze doubtlessly fraudulent exercise earlier than funds are moved throughout the banking system.
The measure displays a rising regulatory clampdown on fraud in Nigeria’s cost ecosystem.
The round reiterates that BVN enrolment stays restricted to people aged 18 and above, and that entry to BVN database info is restricted strictly to monetary establishments licensed by the CBN.
The most recent directive kinds a part of a broader set of measures, together with stronger Know Your Buyer (KYC) measures, launched by the regulator in current months to tighten fraud controls throughout Nigeria’s banking and fintech ecosystem.
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