If your bank account has been struck by the BVNpocalypse, here's what to do

It began with random tweets on Sunday. Random Nigerians complaining about their lack of access to their bank accounts on twitter.

https://twitter.com/DavidIAdeleke/status/660875353435582464

Then this morning, we had a full on breakdown. This is a Monday morning people. Not a drill.

We all knew this day would come. 26 million accounts frozen. Your hard earned money locked away from you. Forever. Well, not forever, just as long as it’s going to take you to get your BVN issues fixed.

There are three categories you could fall into.

1. You haven’t done the BVN at any bank. At all.

Basically, you can’t be helped. There’s no magical hack. You have to go to the bank like everyone else and queue up till it’s your turn.

2. You have a BVN, but you’re yet to link your other bank accounts to it

This one’s easy. You have two options:

Wait it out.

If you have enough money in your linked account (the one you used to register for the BVN, ) you could practise a little frugality and just wait for about two to three weeks when (hopefully) the noise surrounding the BVN would have subsided. Then you could stroll in to the other bank and get the linking done.

Try digital channels.

Some banks have given their customers the option of linking their BVN via internet banking. Or SMS shortcodes. And even via their ATMs. I can’t give you a list of ALL the banks doing this. But it doesn’t hurt you to try, right?

Forgotten ur BVN? Simply dial *565*0# to retrieve it. Code should be sent from same phn no. used to enroll 4 ur BVN. pic.twitter.com/imdtRH57Hn

— Access More (@access_more) October 29, 2015

3. You’ve done your BVN registration but for some unexplainable reason, your account still got frozen

Calm down. I know you’re pissed. But blowing your top won’t fix it. Try the digital channels. ~~Spam~~ Call their customer care lines. Threaten fire and brimstone. I know the banks are aware they’ve dropped the ball on a few of their customers. And they are doing all they can to rectify it. So, short of following this Nigerian’s example

This linking BVN thing online didn't go down with me. I marched straight to all the banks & stood there till they did it.

— R.C.O (@RitaOnwurah) November 2, 2015