By Elizabeth Adegbesan

• as dormant account falls 7%

Commercial and Merchant banks closed 23.3 million customers bank accounts in July 2024.

This represents a 0.56 month-on-month (MoM) increase when compared to 23.17 million bank accounts closed in June 2024.

Analysis of data from Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), however, showed that from January to July, the number of closed accounts fell by 5.6 percent from 24.7 million in January.

Further breakdown also showed that the number of active bank accounts grew by 2.4 percent MoM to 231.1 million in July from 225.53 million in June.

But the number of dormant accounts fell MoM by 7.6 percent to 18.97 million in July from 20.57 million in June.

Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in its Guidelines on Management of Dormant Account, Accounts, Unclaimed Balances and Other Financial Assets In Banks And Other Financial Institutions in Nigeria’ directed banks and other financial institutions to deposit unclaimed balances and funds in dormant accounts to the apex bank accounts.

CBN also issued regulatory guidelines for account owners and beneficial owners to recover their dormant funds for up to 10 years.

The apex bank also disclosed that it will create a dedicated office to manage dormant accounts and unclaimed balances.