BVN Wahala!

So, I finally got my BVN done and it wasn’t easy. After trying three times, the third time was absolutely and definitely the charm!. Although it wasn’t an easy task, I was relieved that I can finally have access to the small change I have in my bank account. But one of the questions that’s been hanging on my mind regarding this BVN registration thing is, why block accounts though? Why not just deactivate them and close the accounts and ask account holders to go and collect their money?. Why restrict people from having access to their money?. With the cashless policy put in place during Fashola’s time as governor and after making sure you don’t need to be carrying money around, they still went ahead and did that? As much as they had their reasons, I personally don’t think any reason was genuine enough to have restricted access to money that could have been needed if there was an emergency.

Yeah yeah, some will say the government warned everybody, gave deadlines, gave more time after the deadlines and bla bla bla. Thing is, the government should already know the people it’s governing. They should already know how Nigerians can be. Not making excuse for Nigerians but restricting my own access to my own money was not the best of ideas. It may have worked, but I think the government should have stopped to consider the disadvantages of that first before implementing it.

The first time I went to the bank, I was told registrations were being done at another branch of the bank. Then on another day I took time out to go to this other branch and the queue I saw there just made me turn back because I just wasn’t in the frame of mind to be on that queue especially on that hot morning. The third time, I just made up my mind that it was me and this BVN today. Whether rain or sunshine, I must do the BVN registration once and for all. So I got to the bank sometime around 9/10 in the morning. The queue had already built up.

Discouraging queue at GTBank

You could tell that some had been there way earlier that the rest. After enquiring from the security guard where the BVN was taking place, he pointed to the much dreaded queue and I had no choice but to join them. Did I mention this queue was outside the bank? In the sun! That heat! And it even rained. Different types of weather all in one day. Anyway, couple of minutes or about an hour later, a staff from the bank came out and began asking who came first. Trust Nigerians. Even the people who just came barely minutes ago came forward and were claiming to be amongst people who had been there all morning. After listening to rants, the bank staff asked everyone to form a queue. We all did. Looking at the queue, you could tell we were about 35-40-45 or even 50 people there but you won’t believe this bank staff only came out with just 15 BVN registration forms. 15!. Ha!. I weak!. But what to do?. I was already on the queue. So, after he had given 13 out, he asked if there was any pregnant woman or nursing mother on the queue. Everyone looked in front of and behind themselves *silence* Nobody responded. That moment, a voice in my head said to step forward and say I was pregnant. LOL! Afterall nobody there knew me or was going to ask me to conduct a pregnancy test for confirmation. But then I also thought, what if all eyes fell on me and somehow, somebody figured out I was lying. LOL!. I just calmly maintained my silence. The bank guy then gave out the remaining forms with him, asked the rest of us to pick a number and then said he was coming back with more forms. That “coming back” turned from minutes to hours. We were still on the queue. I clearly was tired and fagged out and was side-eyeing one spot where I could sit and rest. After barely thinking about it, I just informed the guy in front of me that I was behind him and wanted to sit for a bit. Hours later, another guy from the bank came out with forms. The queue formed earlier had already dispersed as people either had to find somewhere to sit like me or had just given up. So, this guy says that to get a form, we had to form another queue. Again???. I was like, seriously???. I tried getting his attention to tell him we had already picked numbers and that if he could get his colleague to come out and clarify that, there won’t be issues. That didn’t work. God knows I wasn’t about to go form another queue and be number what? 100???. Hell no!. LOL!. I and a couple of others kept insisting that he continued where the other guy left off. That didn’t seem to be working. Fortunately for me, I saw a woman I know and I just went to say hello to her. Thank God I did because that was what saved my ass that day. Apparently, she knows one of the senior staff in the bank. It was this Uncle that took me hand in hand to the guy handling the BVN registration and told him to please sort me out. The sigh of relief I sighed is enough to divide Eleko Beach. LOL!.

That was how I got the BVN registration done.

It was quite an experience. Spent a whole working day on something I could’ve done long ago because I just remembered that months back, this suddenly highly valued BVN form was handed to me on a platter by one of the tellers in the bank. I had gone to do a transaction and the teller gave me the form and asked me to fill it and I was in such a hurry that day that I turned down the offer. If only I had known, right?. LOL!