Statistics by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) shows that the country has a total of 31.2 million bank accounts that are not active in the banking system.
According to the data hosted on the website of the NIBSS, there are a total of ninety one million, six hundred and sixty seven thousand, four hundred and forty-six (91,667,446) accounts in the country as at July 31, 2016
However, there are only sixty four million, ten thousand and thirteen (64,010,013) active accounts within the banking system as at July 31, 2016.
The statistics further revealed that the total number of accounts within the banking sector grew by 6.6 million from a little above 85 million to 91.6 million accounts between December 31, 2015 and July 31, 2016.
Similarly, the total number of active accounts also grew by 5.2 million from 58.9 million as at December 31, 2015 to 64.1 accounts as at July 31, 2016.
A breakdown of the total account shows that 63.6 million are savings account, while 24.9 million are current account, while others account for 3 million accounts.
However, the Bank Verification Number (BVN) enrolment data updated regularly by NIBSS show that only 36.7 million people have enrolled for the BVN exercise. An increase of 8.5 million from the 28.2 million registered as at December 31, 2015
The data suggest that an average account holder in Nigeria maintains a minimum of two accounts in either the same or separate banks.
The BVN data further reveals that the growth of 5.2 million recorded in active accounts between December 31, 2015 to date may be attributed largely to the 8.5 million BVN enrolment between December 31, 2015 and July 31, 2016.
