Nigerian commercial banks closed at least 2 million bank accounts in the first quarter of 2024, Q1’24.
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The move was aimed at eradicating questionable accounts, particularly as some customers failed to comply with regulatory orders on the linkage of their accounts to the National Identity Number, NIN.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, had in December 2023, issued a directive to all commercial banks in the country to restrict tier-1 accounts without proper NIN and Biometric Verification Number, BVN.
In a recent report by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System, NIBSS, it was gathered that over two million accounts were closed in line with the CBN directive.
The NIBSS also indicated that 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.
However, the report which was sighted by Vanguard also indicated that the number of active bank accounts in the country grew by 6.62 million or 3.0 percent to 219.64 million from 213.02 million in February.
A bank account is classified inactive when it records zero transactions including deposits, withdrawals, transfers or point-of-sale transactions for six months.
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