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Commercial banks in Nigeria closed 2.021 million bank accounts in the first quarter of 2024 to clear their books of suspicious accounts and comply with regulatory regulations requiring the linking of bank accounts to the National Identity Number (NIN).
This was stated in a report by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS).
Remember that in December 2023, the CBN issued a directive to all commercial banks in the country to prohibit tier-1 accounts that do not have a suitable Biometric Verification Number, BVN, and National Identity Number, NIN, and are not connected by Thursday, March 1st, 2024.
According to the data, the number of inactive bank accounts increased month on month (MoM) by four million, or 2.0 percent, to 19.7 million in March 2024 from 19.3 million in February.
A bank account is categorized as inactive if it has had no transactions for six months, including deposits, withdrawals, transfers, or point-of-sale activities.
However, details from the "Industry Bank Account Database," a monthly data report by banks and compiled by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System, NIBSS, showed that the number of active bank accounts increased by 6.62 million, or 3.0%, to 219.64 million from 213.02 million in February.
According to NIBSS enrollment data, 61.6 million Nigerians have BVN as of April 2024.