This Virtual NIN is a tokenized version of the person’s actual NIN which another party verifying the number cannot retain and use in a way that puts the individual’s data privacy at risk.
Takeaways
- It consists of a set of 16 alphanumeric characters.
- The Virtual NIN itself (not the NIN record it represents) expires 72 hours after being generated.
- You have to know the organisation’s agent code to generate VNIN.
- You will need VNIN to link your bank account with your NIN, particularly for account holders who have access to the Internet banking platform as can be seen in this guide.
Generating you VNIN
On the app are four methods available for you to generate your Virtual NIN
1) By searching the approved enterprise from the list of approved enterprises and select one that you would like to share your identity token with.
If, for instance, you want to verify the agent code for GTBank, when you select this option, enter the name of the bank, the enterprise code will be displayed.
If you want to generate VNIN for the same bank, search for the bank and click generate VNIN, the token will be displayed and ready for use on any platform, for instance, it can be used when linking your NIN with your bank account.
2) The second option is to enter the bank’s enterprise code in the search bar if you already know the agent code and click the “generate VNIN” button.
3) Third, if you have the organisation’s QR code, you can scan to get the VNIN
4) The last option is to dial the USSD code.
Generally, the USSD code to generate virtual NIN is *346*3*Your NIN*enterprise code#
To get VNIN for another organisation, on the number one option, click the + button and search the organisation and generate VNIN for it.