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During the first quarter of 2024, commercial banks in Nigeria closed 2.021 million bank accounts to comply with regulatory requirements related to the National Identity Number (NIN) and to remove questionable accounts from their records.
A report by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) revealed that the number of inactive bank accounts increased by 2.0 percent month-on-month, reaching 19.7 million in March 2024 compared to 19.3 million in February.
An inactive bank account has had no transactions, including deposits, withdrawals, transfers, or point-of-sale transactions, for six months.
However, according to the "Industry Bank Account Database" compiled by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System, active bank accounts increased by 6.62 million or 3.0 percent to 219.64 million from 213.02 million in February.
In December 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directed all commercial banks 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. As of April 2024, the NIBSS data shows 61.6 million Nigerians have BVN.
