THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has extended the deadline for the full implementation of the Nigeria Uniform Account Number (NUBAN) to June 1, 2012.
The exercise was hitherto scheduled to end on June 1, 2011. The implication is that the CBN has given a year extension period.
This new directive was contained in a memo to all banks. It was signed by the apex bank’s Director, Banking and Payments System Department, A.S. Atoloye.
The memo from the apex bank, which was obtained by The Guardian yesterday, was titled “One year extension period for NUBAN.”
The apex bank noted that in view of several requests from stakeholders for an extension of the transition period, and the need for a successful transition, it deemed it necessary to extend the transition period by one year during which old account numbers/cheques, and NUBAN codes would co-exist in the electronic payment and cheque clearing systems, with full implementation expected by June 1, 2012.
Based on that, the CBN stressed: “You are therefore by this circular required to comply with the timeline of June 1, 2012 for full transition of NUBAN codes.”
The CBN released the Guidelines on Nigeria Uniform Bank Account Number (NUBAN) scheme in August 2010 to achieve uniform customer bank account numbering structure among all Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria, within nine months.
Prior to this period, banks in Nigeria were operating different codes for their banking transactions. Some had code figures ranging from 12 to 15. But the current CBN policies allows for a uniform figure of 10
According to the CBN, “NUBAN has great potential to resolve the observed problems with electronic payments in Nigeria, as many of them are related to specification of wrong beneficiary account numbers.
“The mode of transition from the present situation to the NUBAN scheme has to be handled carefully to ensure the success of the scheme.”
In its latest directive, the apex bank warned that “for the avoidance of doubt, the old account numbers and cheques without NUBAN codes will cease to operate from June 1, 2012 and Central Bank of Nigeria hereby reiterates that it will not grant further extension to the deadline.”
SOURCE: GUARDIAN
