Four banks have disclosed details of at least 321,181 dormant accounts in compliance with a directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The move comes amid warnings from economic analysts that the CBN’s directive raises serious concerns over customer communication, account reactivation processes, business closures, and data privacy.

The listed dormant accounts cut across individuals, companies, cooperatives, churches, clubs, community associations, and small businesses whose accounts have remained inactive for more than 10 years.

The banks include Access Bank Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank, and Fidelity Bank Plc.

The disclosures followed the CBN’s July 2024 Guidelines on the Management of Dormant Accounts, Unclaimed Balances and Other Financial Assets, which require financial institutions to publish details of dormant accounts on their websites six months before such funds are transferred to the apex bank’s Unclaimed Balances Trust Fund Pool Account.

An analysis of the published records shows that Access Bank Plc accounted for 243,934 dormant accounts, while Stanbic IBTC Bank listed 26,135 accounts.

Fidelity Bank Plc disclosed about 61,900 dormant accounts, and Union Bank of Nigeria Plc published 212 dormant and unclaimed accounts that have remained inactive for 10 years or more.

The combined total from the four banks stands at about 321,181 dormant accounts.

Findings from the register of Access Bank Plc show an almost even split between individual and corporate dormant accounts, suggesting that business inactivity is a major driver of rising dormant account volumes across the banking sector.

A detailed review of the Access Bank Plc records revealed 122,390 individual accounts and 120,718 corporate accounts, accounting for 50.34% and 49.66% respectively.

In contrast, data from the Fidelity Bank Plc register showed a different trend, with corporate accounts making up roughly 79% of the dormant accounts.

The 693-page document contained about 48,900 corporate accounts and approximately 13,000 individual accounts.

The accounts point to widespread inactivity across multiple sectors, including SMEs, oil and gas companies, logistics operators, churches, schools, hospitality businesses, pharmaceutical firms, marine operators, and informal trading enterprises.

Several of the dormant accounts were traced to major Lagos commercial hubs such as Idumota, Oyingbo, Allen Avenue, Awolowo Road, and Ladipo, while other significant clusters were identified in Port Harcourt’s oil-services corridors and key trading centres in northern Nigeria.

For Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, the smaller list of 212 entries was largely made up of cooperatives, clubs, churches, associations, alumni bodies, women’s groups, and community development unions distributed across different parts of the country.

The dormant accounts register of Stanbic IBTC Bank, spanning over 1,520 pages, showed heavy concentrations in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Kaduna, and Maiduguri.

The records were largely made up of current accounts, including salary accounts and joint accounts, alongside a smaller share of corporate and institutional accounts.

In a related development, some major lenders adopted different disclosure approaches.

United Bank for Africa Plc did not publish a dormant accounts register; instead, it maintained a separate list of unclaimed dividends.