300 LEVEL ENTREPRENEUR ASSIGNMENT

What Is BVN?
Aimed at revolutionising the payment system in the country, the BVN captures bank customers’  data, which are electronic verification tools for online and mobile banking, which also offer unique customer identification, giving unchangeable identification that helps in the Know Your Customer (KYC) device.
To register, bank customers are expected to walk into the banking halls and have their biometrics captured which includes facial image and print of all 10 fingers to create a unique identity and subsequently attach numbers to the customers.  The unique identity created cuts across the banking industry and the customer has just one identity not withstanding how many bank accounts such customer operates. This means that the customer has to register only once no matter how many banks he or she uses.

PROS

·         BVN gives a unique identity that can be verified across the Nigerian Banking Industry (not peculiar to one Bank)

·         Customers Bank Accounts are protected from unauthorized access

·         It will address issues of identity theft, thus reduce exposure to fraud

·         The BVN will enhance the Banking Industry chances of being able to fish out blacklisted customers

·         Reduce queue in Banking Halls

·         Standardized efficiency of Banking operations

·         The Customers unique BVN is accepted as a means of identification across ALL Nigerian Banks

 The BVN initiative involves the capturing of an individual’s basic biometric data information, which includes the facial image, the 10 fingerprints as well as other unique features of that individual. It will utilise the biometric technology system for verification and secure authentication of the identity of bank customers and ultimately as a means of authenticating customer’s identity at the point of banking transactions.

The CBN explained that the biometric system, when fully operational, will help improve the safety of credit transactions in the economy, subsequently boosting the nation’s macro-economy. The decision to conduct a biometric exercise on bank customers came on the heels of the committee’s decision to rollout the Central Bank-led cashless policy, which had gone live in the remaining states of the country since July 1, 2014.

Biometrics is gradually supplanting traditional customer and employee identification credentials as a technology that is more secure and a much stronger tool to prevent bank fraud. Experts, who conceived the idea, were guided by the obvious advantages of biometrics, which includes very high accuracy, the most economical biometric PC user authentication technique, one of the most developed biometrics and easy to use.

Also, its small storage space required for the biometric template, reducing the size of the database memory required and is standardized. The more complex the system, the most difficult is to be attacked, although it will be more expensive and will require more software and hardware resources. When a new authentication system is implanted, it is essentially a judgment between simplicity, price and efficiency, as well as social acceptability.

CONS

The process has, however, come with its own challenges, ranging from registering customers outside the country to double registration on the part of the customers. Linking BVNs with accounts has been one of the challenges of the BVN registration as customers with multiple bank accounts still have to undergo almost the same process to link their accounts with their BVN.
Although NIBSS, which coordinates the data gathered, has assured that data would only have to be taken at one bank, irrespective of the number of accounts an individual has or banks they use, this has not proved to be so as customers still have to re-register when they use other banks, despite the fact that they already have their BVN.

According to an official in one of the major banks, “we still have to take the biometrics so that the data can be synchronised and we are sure that it is the same person running both accounts.”
This means that for any customer who has active accounts with up to five or more banks, he or she would have to register at all the banks. However, the CBN has directed that customers should not be taken through the ordeal of having to walk into the banking halls to link their BVN with bank accounts.
In addressing the challenge of linking BVN with customers’ accounts, the apex bank had directed deposit money banks in the country to allow customers submit their BVN online or through ATMs.
CBN director of banking and payment system, Dipo Fatokun, noted that banks are to create pathways for customers on internet banking and ATM platforms to provide their BVNs as well as through emails, formal letters or a special service portal provided by NIBSS.

Despite the challenge of implementing the bank verification number, Biometric identification systems have many disadvantages. The biometrics can also make mistakes with the dryness or dirt of the finger’s skin, as well as with the age (is not appropriate with children, because the size of their fingerprint changes quickly). And the image captured at 500 dots per inch (dpi). Resolution: 8 bits per pixel.

A 500 dpi fingerprint image at 8 bits per pixel demands a large memory space, 240 Kbytes approximately giving rise to a compression required (a factor of 10 approximately). Specifically, studies have shown that Police have at times misused biometric information.

Fingerprint readers are used to limit access to computers, but they are no more reliable than turnkey locks. While banks are free to do what they will with their own biometric information, indications are that such systems could be abused. In spite of the merits, a determined pirate can steal the biometric information if it’s stored on a computer.

There are many other drawbacks to these systems. For instance, if evidence planting by police happens, and a cop goes astray, armed with an innocent person’s biometric information, he can destroy that individual. How often evidence planting happens is an open question, but it has been documented throughout the United States.

IMPACTS ON BANKING CORPORATE PUBLIC

Fraud is reduced because no two people have the same biometric information. Banks will therefore be able to check the features of a person doing a transaction against the record which the bank has captured thereby correctly identifying the owner of an account.

2. The devaluation of Naira has been a point of discussions among the people that deals with foreign currency for trade and batter. I strongly disagreed with this act by the Nigerian authority. There was a time that Naira was equal to Nigerian money, but now, it is 199 folds in return.

There have been many rumours that the naira should be devalued against the U.S. dollar and other major foreign currencies. So, the eventual intervention by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has happened.

CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele announced the devaluation of the naira. Reverberating effects to economy are expected because of  gamut of pronouncements like increasing Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) to 13 per cent, the adjustment of the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) for Private Sector Deposits and others.

To me, naira devaluation will lead to a chain of reactions, many of which may not have the appropriate results, because the Nigerian economy mainly depends on oil.

The devalued naira will drive export of local products, which do not exist in the required volume for now, but will create an additional burden on the populace, the reason being that the cost of consumables, across the board, will escalate.

As the direct consequence of the raise in the base lending rate the cost of loanable funds would have risen. In such case the development will be counterproductive, and against the thrust of the government’s touted plan to create jobs.

There is the expectation that the government’s revenue, in terms of naira will move up, because of the wide exchange rate disparity between the dollar and the local currency. But the point must be made that this expectation may be unrealisable of two variables – the falling oil prices and lower crude production aggregate.

In the developed nation’s when currencies are devalued, it is to encourage exports, because the prices of local products serve as an incentive and a toast for foreign buyers. In the process, they earn foreign exchange, increase production and create additional jobs. Unfortunately, that is not the position with Nigeria.

Is there any escape-route? Certainly, but the question remains if Nigerians have been sufficiently sensitised to brace for this situation.

IMPORTANT OF FARM ACCOUNT

1.      Tax Reporting 

2.      It can be helpful in planning improvements for that business and making proper management decisions

3.      To make informed management decisions that will help maintain or improve farm business profitability

4.      Records can help the manager plan and implement farm business arrangements and do estate and other transfer farming

5.      Also, farm managers can use records to determine what the efficiencies and the inefficiencies are, measure progress of the business and plan for the future.

DIFFERENT ACCOUNT TO BE PREPARED IN FARM

Farm diary. A small notebook in which to record the key facts and figures of the

farm business and the day-to-day activities as they occur is the most useful, practical

(and often the only) form of record keeping. Farmers who do use a diary find that

important facts and figures that could easily be lost or forgotten are permanently

recorded for future reference, though they may not be easy to find quickly.

Crop records: It is sometimes useful to record what happens to each plot or crop each year, such as type of crop, fertiliser applications (time and amount), agronomy (seeding, weeding, sprays), visual impression of crop, harvest interval of forage crops and if known, crop yield.

Unit costs of all major farm inputs, such as fertilisers, fuel, irrigation water, concentrates and/or their ingredients, purchased forages, stock purchases. These are necessary for routine bookkeeping and also to monitor seasonal changes and hence to plan future purchases

Unit returns from all farm outputs, such as milk, cull cows and heifers, sale steers or bulls, manure, excess feed, to plan future sales

Livestock inventory accounting: The main purpose of livestock accounts is to monitor net losses and gains in income, and to distinguish the increases and decreases due to changes in market value. When quantifying total livestock value you have to take into account both changing herd size and change in unit price

Plant and improvement records: Examples of relevant records include date and cost of purchase or installation, annual depreciation, insurance and registration, fuel use, hours use (to plan services), major repairs and maintenance

Key financial recordssuch as interest and principal repayment schedules, to plan repayments

Personal expenses: to ensure the manager and farm family’s imputed wages are realistic and that people are living within their means. This should include a valuation of any farm produce used for personal consumption

Multicolumn records: Books with multicolumn pages help with financial records. Each column can be given a heading which fits the specific situation on the farm. For example, with crops, columns could list for each plot the cost for fertiliser, seeding, spray, labour, water, machinery, harvesting, processing, transport and selling. Wages could be broken down into different farm activities

20 EXAMPLES OF NON OIL REVENUE

Cocoa production

Rubber Production

palm oil Production

Poultry Farming’

Cassava Production

Livestock Prodution

Services rendering

Transport

Tourism

Mining

Energy

Overseas remittances

Foreign aid

Labour force

Human capital