Nigeria sees surge in active bank accounts — NIBSS

By Sodiq Adelakun

In a significant financial development, Nigeria’s banking sector has witnessed a substantial increase in the number of active bank accounts, according to the latest figures released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).

The total number of active bank accounts in the country soared to 151 million in 2022, marking a 13 percent rise from the 133.5 million active accounts reported in the previous year.

The detailed NIBSS report highlights that individual accounts constitute the lion’s share of this growth, accounting for 96.6 percent with a staggering 146 million active accounts. Corporate accounts make up the remainder.

Further analysis of the data reveals a 14 percent increase in current accounts, which reached 56.9 million in 2022, up from 49.8 million in 2021. Savings accounts also saw a robust growth of 16 percent, climbing to 139.2 million from 120.4 million the year before.

Despite the positive trend in active account usage, the country also recorded a rise in the number of inactive bank accounts.

The total stood at 72.8 million for the year 2022. Consequently, the overall bank accounts in Nigeria, as of December 2022, numbered 223.8 million, with 151 million in active use.

This represents a 26 percent increase, equating to an additional 14.9 million inactive accounts, compared to the end of 2021 when the number of inactive accounts was 57.9 million, as per NIBSS data.

Industry experts have pointed to a variety of reasons behind the growth in inactive accounts across the country. The expansion in the banking sector is indicative of a broader financial inclusion strategy and reflects the growing engagement of Nigerians with formal financial services.

However, the concurrent rise in inactive accounts suggests that there are still challenges to be addressed to ensure that these services are continuously utilised by account holders.

This shows an increase of 26 percent or 14.9 million increase in the number of inactive bank accounts for the year. At the end of 2021, inactive bank accounts stood at 57.9 million per NIBSS data.

Industry analysts have cited several factors for the increasing number of inactive accounts in the country.

 According to them, these include an increase in the prices of goods and services, low income accompanied by the low purchasing power of Nigerians, increasing rate of unemployment, and immigration among others.

An inactive or dormant account is a bank account that has had no activity on it for 12 months.

Banks convert accounts with no activity for a long period into inoperative or dormant accounts to curtail the risk of fraud. By segregating the accounts, banks bring to their workers’ attention the risk involved in these accounts and call for their due diligence.