The move is also part of efforts to ensure compliance with regulatory orders on the linkage of bank accounts to the National Identity Number, NIN.
In the first quarter of 2024, Q1’24, 2.021 million bank accounts in Nigeria were closed by commercial banks
The financial institutions closed the bank accounts to clean their books of unscrupulous activities and expunge questionable accounts.
The move is also part of effort to ensure compliance with regulatory orders on the linkage of bank accounts to the National Identity Number, NIN.
The development is contained in a report by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System, NIBSS.
According to the report, the number of inactive bank accounts grew month-on-month, MoM, by four million or 2.0 per cent to 19.7 million in March 2024 from 19.3 million in the previous month, February.
A bank account is classified inactive when it records zero transactions including deposits, withdrawals, transfers or point-of-sale transactions for six months.
However, details of the “Industry Bank Account Database”, a monthly data reported by banks, and compiled by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System, NIBSS, also indicated that the number of active bank accounts grew by 6.62 million or 3.0 per cent to 219.64 million from 213.02 million in February.
Recall that in December 2023, the CBN issued a directive to all commercial banks in the country to restrict tier-1 accounts without proper Biometric Verification Number, BVN, and National Identity Number, NIN, that are not linked by Thursday, March 1st, 2024.
According to NIBSS data on BVN enrollment count, 61.6 million Nigerians have BVN as of April 2024.
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