Are you at home with medical surgery? Or your heart skips a beat whenever the subject is raised? Well, to make the surgical procedure pretty, mini-invasive surgery [MIS] was introduced. Instead of the large cuts often needed in traditional surgery, MIS uses tiny cuts or no cuts at all. MIS comes in variants. Each involves the surgeon using an endoscope. The endoscope is a thin tube. It has a light and tiny video camera at the tip. It allows the surgeon to see inside the body via a monitor. It uses very small surgical tools in the area.
This surgery, according to research, can help patients to have shorter hospital stays. It can also enable quicker recovery times, less pain and discomfort. It promotes less chance of infection, less bleeding and smaller scars. For instance, if you undergo MIS you will get anaesthesia to ‘sleep’ through the procedure. Then, the surgeon will insert the endoscope into your body through the nostrils, mouth or tiny cuts in your body.
The CBN has discovered that the existing BVN is not delivering the expected outcome. Therefore, the apex bank is looking outside of BVN 1.0 for a solution.
Images from the endoscope are shown on monitors in the operating room so that the surgeon can get a clear and magnified view of the surgical area. However, for some minimally invasive procedures, special surgical tools or instruments are inserted through other small incisions. The surgeon uses these tools to explore, to remove, or to repair a problem inside the body.
In addition, there are many different types of endoscopes. Some have tiny surgery tools attached. Some endoscopes are flexible; others are stiff. The kind of endoscope that will be used on you depends on the kind of surgery being performed. It might have a different name. On the flip side, sometimes during the invasive surgery, a surgeon might have to switch to a traditional surgery after looking inside the body. This can happen if the problem is different from what the surgeon expected.
This is the case with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) concerning the use of the Bankers Verification Number (BVN) to collect know your customer data from bank customers. The CBN has discovered that the existing BVN is not delivering the expected outcome. Therefore, the apex bank is looking outside of BVN 1.0 for a solution. The solution has come in the form of an upgrade. This is known as BVN 2.0. Get it clear. The CBN is not eradicating BVN. It is deepening its application through the use of two distinct packages. One is for the savvy bank customers. The other is for those at the bottom of the pyramid.
To make it pretty and sexy, the CBN called these packages BVN lite and BVN premium. BVN lite is for those at the bottom of the pyramid or the “unbanked.” Those who are not in the formal financial system. So, the CBN wants to attract their attention and get to know them intimately by collecting minimal data. On the flipside, BVN premium is for those who are already in the formal financial system but whose data are inadequate.
According to the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, while speaking in Ogun State at the conclusion of the 11th Bankers’ Committee, the purpose of the upgrade was to create room for more people in the rural areas who have little or no documentation to access basic banking services. As such, with this delivery, the city dweller and people in rural areas will now have access to banking services.
The CBN is not eradicating BVN. It is deepening its application through the use of two distinct packages.
In clearer terms, if you reside in Ikoyi, in the hills of Osun State, where banking service is at its minimal, you would be enrolled on BVN lite. Like the MIS, BVN lite is short and sharp, sexy and pretty. All you need is your name and telephone number. With this information, you are financially included and you can make a deposit, get loans and basic insurance services. Some of these services can be carried out via your phone. Emefiele said with this information in the system, bringing the rural dwellers into the financial system will “help to increase the rate of financial inclusion and reduce exclusion rate.”
If carried out thoroughly and successfully, BVN lite has the capacity to increase the number of bank customers from its current capacity of 40 million. It would also, bring many Nigerians into the formal arrangement where they can conduct minimal financial services, not just banking services and other services that can be done with the aid of your phone.
On another hand, the BVN premium has a quality attached to it. Like the traditional surgical procedures, it is not pretty. It has about 18 lines of information. You need a valid identity document. You need to fill all the 18 fields on the enrollment form correctly. You need biometrics capturing of all of your 10 fingers! Like the traditional surgery, that is not pretty.
*Olaegbe ([email protected])
*This article was first published in January
