As a Nigerian, it is important to read this article on how to know if your BVN is blacklisted in Nigeria or not in order to know when to take action and what actions to take. If you don’t know, your BVN is an 11-digit unique number that serves as your virtual identity as you interact with Nigerian financial institutions at home and abroad.
Your BVN is connected to your biometric data; as such you can only have one BVN. As important as the BVN is, you can get it blacklisted if you run into trouble or financial misconduct. The danger of blacklisted BVN is so great that it can prevent you from not only getting a loan but a job and even from traveling abroad.
In this article, I will show you how to know if your BVN is blacklisted, how to remove it from being blacklisted, and possible reasons why your BVN can get blacklisted.
How to Know If Your BVN is Blacklisted in Nigeria
To know if your BVN is blacklisted in Nigeria, send an email request for your credit report to a credible credit reporting agency in Nigeria or by signing up on their website to request a free report of your credit standing (Credit Bureau of Nigeria). The institution will respond to you with a detailed financial standing stating the institution you are owning and the amount. However, if the loans you got are from loan sharks who are unregulated, they may not appear on the list.
While requesting your credit report, I suggest you use CreditConnection – because they are free and fast, unlike some credit reporting agencies that might charge you for this service.
Some of these credit reporting services charge from N1000 to as high as N8000 per report request. You might need to create an account in order to request your report. If you eventually find yourself blacklisted, you can proceed to learn how to remove your BVN from the blacklist in Nigeria.
How to Remove Your BVN from Blacklist in Nigeria
Below are the steps to remove your BVN from the blacklist in Nigeria.
Step 1: Request your credit report
The first step is to send a request to any of the credit reporting agencies in Nigeria for your credit report. The credit report will show why you were blacklisted, the institution you own, and the amount.
However, if you owe an unregulated institution, it might not be reflected as only licensed and regulated financial institutions are captured.
Step 2: Pay your outstanding debt
After you have received your credit report, the next step is to pay off the debt. You need to go back to your lender for example if you used a loan app.
Contact the lender and discuss the best payment plan for you. You can set up an automatic payment to ease the process of payments and be free from such embarrassment from other financial institutions when you intend to take an emergency or mortgage loan.
Step 3: Get the clearance certificate or letter of non-indebtedness from your lender
After you are done paying your debt, ensure you get the clearance certificate or letter of non-indebtedness and forward it to the credit bureau for verification.
The credit bureau would do its own investigation by keeping in contact with the financial institution and consider removing your indebtedness.
This is an important thing to do because just like in other developed nations they used credit scores (fico scores) to determine credit worthiness, in Nigeria financial institutions are beginning to adopt credit bureaus to determine anyone’s creditworthiness.
Step 4: Contact Credit Bureau
After your outstanding debt has been settled, your lender should contact the credit bureau and update your financial records. However most times, this process is automatic.
Also, you can send an application to the credit bureau to have your credit profile updated. You can contact the credit bureau by email or phone.
While sending your application, it should include your full name, BVN, Phone number, clearance certificate (if provided), gender, and evidence of payment. It might take two to five business days for your application to be attended to and your profile updated and your BVN removed from the blacklist.
Below are the credit bureau contact details
- Phone line: +234-807-209-0622
- Helpdesk: https://helpdesk.creditreferencenigeria.net/
- Email: support@crccreditbureau.com
List Of Credit Bureau In Nigeria That Are Licensed To Operate in Nigeria
- CRC Credit Bureau Limited
- CreditConnection
- FirstCentral Credit Bureau
You can go through any of them using their websites.
Reasons Why Your BVN Can Be Blacklisted in Nigeria
Below are the reasons why your BVN can be blacklisted in Nigeria.
Default to pay your loan: This is the most common reason why your BVN can be blacklisted in Nigeria. When you default in paying your loan, the loan agencies will send your BVN and details to the Credit Bureau for blacklisting.
Being a guarantor to a loan defaulter: Being a guarantor to a loan defaulter can affect you greatly. The guarantor might be held down till the loan defaulter settles the outstanding loan. This is why you have to be careful when standing as a guarantor for someone.
Someone using your details to borrow: If you do not guard your personal information, they can be hijacked by fraudsters and used to acquire a loan on your behalf.
What is the Effect of BVN Blacklisting
When your BVN is blacklisted, it might lead to some terrible consequences. Below are some of the consequences you get to suffer as a result of your BVN being blacklisted.
Inability to secure a loan: One of the major consequences of BVN blacklisting is that you wouldn’t be able to secure a loan from a regulated lender. Most genuine lenders run background checks before issuing a loan and when they discover that your BVN is blacklisted, your loan request will be denied. You will have to resort to borrowing from loan sharks who charge unreasonable interest rates.
Might affect your chances of getting a job: Some reputable organizations run background checks on you, including your credit history before giving you a job. When your BVN is blacklisted, it might affect your chances of securing a good job.
Might affect your chances of securing some government deals: Certain government deals will require that you have a good credit history. However, if your BVN is blacklisted or has been blacklisted, it might affect your chances.
Might affect your chances of traveling abroad: The process of securing a visa is becoming more stringent as the day progresses. One of the demands is to have a clear record. So you may deny your visa application if your BVN is blacklisted.
Can Loan App Blacklist My BVN?
The answer to can loan app blacklists my BVN is yes, loan apps can actually blacklist your BVN by sending defaulted data to credit bureau agencies who are responsible for keeping the records of all lenders.
If that happens and you are still yet to pay your loan, then your BVN can be blacklisted. The next time you try to get a loan from any lender, you might be denied.
Conclusion
It is important to stay away from anything that might always try to pay your loan when due and doesn’t act as a guarantor to someone you aren’t sure is paying the loan back.
