Nigeria’s active bank accounts increased to 133.5 million in December 2021, as additional 18.7 million accounts became active, data from Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) shows.
Ownership of active bank accounts in Nigeria has shown that more Nigerians are gradually becoming financially included and more banks are penetrating the global market.
Gloria Fadipe, head of research at FCMB said in other for banks to increase deposit they ensure that more individual becomes bank account holders through various marketing methods and incentive.
She said, ” Banks may be trying to activate dormant accounts, this however increases the number of active accounts.”
BusinessDay analysis of the NIBSS data revealed that the dormant bank accounts reported in 2021 amounted to 57.9 million compared to the 52.2 million the previous year.
According to the World Bank, access to a transaction account is the first step toward broader financial inclusion “since it allows people to store, send and receive money.”
The number of Nigerians with accounts at regulated institutions such as a bank, credit unions, microfinance institutions, post offices, or mobile money service provider, increased by 45 percent in 2021,world bank reported.
However, the global bank stated that global account ownership increased from 51 percent in 2011 to 76 percent in 2021. Nigeria’s account ownership growth grew from 30 percent to 45 percent in the period under review.
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The bank disclosed this in its ‘The Global Findex Database 2021: Financial Inclusion, Digital Payments, and Resilience in the Age of COVID-19,’ report. It said the overall account ownership in developing economies grew by 30 percent, from 42 percent in 2011 to 71 percent in 2021.
In 2020, Nigeria’s financial inclusion rate grew to 64.1 percent 2020 from 63.2 percent in 2018, according to EFInA.
The 2020 figure is below the CBN’s 80 percent financial inclusion target for the year 2020. And although the inclusion rate dropped marginally from 36.8 percent in 2018 to 35.9 percent in 2020, the excluded adult population of 38.1 million reported in 2020 was higher than the 36.6 million recorded in 2018, meaning 1.5 million adults fell into the exclusion circle in the last two years to 2020.
“When we look at the percentages and numbers, in terms of financial inclusion, we are lagging behind payments by 25 percent and credits by 37 percent,” Isaiah Owolabi, Chief Executive Officer of Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access EFinA said.
A 2021 multiple indicator cluster survey (MICS) has shown that in Nigeria, Lagos state emerged as the highest state where at least one household member owns or operates a bank account.
Anambra, FCT Abuja, Edo, and Imo state following as the top five states that have a greater percentage of household ownership with bank accounts.
Similarly, Enrolments for the Biometric Verification Number (BVN) by bank account owners in the country rose by 4.5 million in the last twelve months, According to data released by NIBSS, the new enrolments recorded between January- December brought the total registration to 56 million as of December 25, 2022.
As of December 26, 2021, the enrollment number stood at 51.9 million. Checks revealed that the BVN database grew by six million in the year. NIBSS data showed that total bank accounts in the country stood at 191.4 million as of December 2021.
While there may be multiple accounts linked to a single BVN, industry analysts said there is still a gap between bank accounts and BVN registrations, which must be filled.
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