Commercial and merchant banks in Nigeria closed 23.3 million customer accounts in July 2024, according to data from the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System.
This marks a slight increase of 0.56% from the 23.17 million accounts closed in June 2024.
However, the number of closed accounts has decreased since the beginning of the year. In January, 24.7 million accounts were closed, showing a 5.6% reduction by July.
At the same time, the number of active bank accounts saw growth. In July, active accounts increased by 2.4%, rising from 225.53 million in June to 231.1 million. Meanwhile, the number of dormant accounts dropped by 7.6%, falling from 20.57 million in June to 18.97 million in July.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has issued guidelines for managing dormant accounts. Banks are required to transfer unclaimed balances from dormant accounts to the CBN, where a dedicated office will be set up to handle these accounts.
The CBN also allows account holders or beneficiaries to recover funds from dormant accounts for up to 10 years.
