Bank customers in the country abandoned 2.6million accounts between March and May this year, according to the “Industry Customer Bank Account Data” for the months of March, April and May 2020, recently released by the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS).
The data showed that the e total number of inactive and dormant bank accounts stood at 48.5million at the end of May compared with 45.89million and 45.86million at the end of April and March respectively.
This means that the total number of accounts that were abandoned by customers during the three month period, amounted to 2.63million.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) classifies bank account inactivity into two categories: Inactive and Dormant types.
According to the apex bank, “a bank account is classified as inactive if there has been no customer or depositor-initiated transaction in it for a period of six months after the last customer or depositorinitiated transaction.”
It also states that “a bank account shall be classified as dormant if there has been no customer or depositor-initiated transaction in it for a period of one year after the last customer or depositor-initiated transaction.”
Analysis of the NIBSS data shows that while the total number of bank accounts stood at 160.04million at the end of May 2020, the total number of active bank accounts during the period was 111.5million, meaning that 48.5million accounts were either inactive or dormant.
Also, while the total number of bank accounts in April was 143.4million, the total number of active bank accounts stood at 97.5million, which means that 45.9million accounts were either inactive or dormant.
For March, the data equally indicates that while the total number of bank accounts stood at 143.2million, the total number of active accounts was 97.3million, meaning that 45.87million accounts were inactive or dormant in that month.