Nigerian banks close 2m accounts

Many commercial banks in Nigeria have closed about 2.021 million bank accounts in the first quarter of 2024.
According to reports, the move was taken to comply with regulatory orders on the linkage of bank accounts to the National Identity Number (NIN) and also clean their books of questionable accounts.

According to a report by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), 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.

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Banking rules stipulated that 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.

It would be recalled 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 NIN that are not linked by Thursday, March 1st, 2024.