“Commercial banks in Nigeria closed 2.021 million bank accounts in the first quarter of 2024, Q1’24, to clean their books of questionable accounts and comply with regulatory orders on the linkage of bank accounts to the National Identity Number, NIN.
“This is contained in a report by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System, NIBSS, which also indicated that the number of inactive bank accounts grew month-on-month, MoM, by four million or 2.0 per cent to 19.7 million in March 2024 from 19.3 million in the previous month, February. A bank account is classified inactive when it records zero transactions including deposits, withdrawals, transfers or point-of-sale transactions for six months” – Vanguard wrote
On the closure due to lack of NIN and BVN, what happens to the balances in these accounts? Are banks expected to convert them to profits? No one has explained to me what is going on here? On closure due to inactivity after 6 months, that is unfortunate. So, you close it, do you contact the person or the next of kin, or does that become part of the bank’s treasury?
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I have an account in a bank with a balance of N200k but no NIN/BVN is connected to it. Since it is possibly closed now, what happens to that N200k?
Nigeria needs to update the Bank Account Closure regulation if there is anything like that. There needs to be a clause which indicates that if the bank cannot track the owner or next of kin, the funds must be returned to the Nigerian treasury. My personal email has not changed since I opened this account; the bank has not emailed.
In the United States, they used to allow gift cards to expire anyhow. But one day, the US Congress added a small clause, stipulating that once the card expires, send the value to the US Treasury. Magically, only a few cards expire these days.
Good People, that someone has been unable to add NIN or BVN to an bank account does not mean the bank does not have an obligation to use available contacts to reach him or her to return the money even as the account is being closed. Sure, before you close, what efforts have you made to track the owner?
We must not allow these regulations to become an avenue to disenfranchise vulnerable citizens. State Attorney Generals can mobilize and write banks, asking for assets belonging to their citizens, since the Federal Government is not interested in this matter. At least, that “State of Origin” will serve a useful purpose in the bank database. “Bank, if you cannot find this person, the money belongs to the state”… how does it sound?
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You have given the state attorneys something to think about, this one could fetch plenty money if pursued vigorously. Some account owners are not even alife, and their relatives might not be aware of the accounts, so what have banks done with the physical addresses and next-of-kin contact details they always asked for? Do they ever go out of their way to trace those addresses when the account owners neither reply mail nor receive sms? Those who are not interested in taking what does not belong to them will always find ways to reach the owners, others won’t bother anyway.
Again, the funds that would be returned to the treasury or the CBN upon closure, who verifies whether everything is remitted or part has been stolen? Any forensics in that regard? Asking banks to submit records of inactive accounts won’t be enough, you will need more than that to ascertain whether anything has been tampered with.
When we start investigating and questioning how both known and unknown people in strategic positions make money here, we will see a lot. For now too many people are depressed, so obviously not ready to ask critical questions.