The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has reported that the number of active bank accounts in Nigeria rose to 311.6 million in December 2024, representing a significant increase when compared to the 202.6 million active bank accounts at the end of 2023.
The data from the NIBSS Instant Payments channel just published indicated that a total of 106 million new accounts were opened or reactivated between January and December last year.
An analysis of the data further reflected that the number of inactive or dormant bank accounts in the country marginally increased to 19.5 million, indicating a 7.9% increase year-on-year from the 18.06 million dormant accounts as of the end of 2023.
Similarly, the data showed that the number of bank accounts that had been closed stood at 25.5 million as of the end of December 2024 compared to closed 21.2 million bank accounts that were closed at the end of 2023, implying that additional 4.3 million bank accounts were closed 2024.
The NIBSS’ data revealed that there was a wide disparity in the number of active bank accounts and the number of Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) as the total registered BVNs by account owners stood at 64.8 million as of January this year.
The BVN is now a compulsory requirement for opening a bank account in Nigeria.
