The number of active bank accounts in Nigeria witnessed a 13% growth, reaching a total of 151 million in 2022, compared to the 133.5 million active bank accounts recorded in 2021, as reported by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System.
According to the NIBSS data, individual accounts accounted for 96.6% of the active bank accounts, totaling 146 million, while the remaining accounts were corporate.
The breakdown of account types reveals a 14% increase in current accounts, rising from 49.8 million in 2021 to 56.9 million in 2022. Similarly, savings accounts saw a 16% uptick, reaching 139.2 million in 2022 compared to 120.4 million in the previous year.
Meanwhile, in the year under review, the number of inactive bank accounts in the country reached 72.8 million.
According to NIBSS data, the total number of bank accounts in the country as of December 2022 was 223.8 million, with 151 million actively in use. This reflects a 26% increase or a rise of 14.9 million in the number of inactive bank accounts for the year. In comparison, at the end of 2021, inactive bank accounts totaled 57.9 million according to NIBSS data.
An inactive or dormant account is defined as a bank account that has had no activity for 12 months. To mitigate the risk of fraud, banks often convert accounts with no activity for an extended period into inoperative or dormant accounts.
