Babajide Okeowo
The Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) has revealed that 34.728 million bank accounts across Nigeria are yet to be linked to the Bank Verification Number (BVNs).
According to data released by NIBSS few days ago, 758,000 bank accounts were linked within the last two months. This brings the total number of linked accounts to 38,198,207, up from 38,026,393.
The data analysis from the NIBSS indicates that the registration of biometric verification numbers has been on the low compared to the rate at which bank accounts are being opened across the country.
Meanwhile, the total number of bank accounts in Nigeria as at May 2019 is pegged at 122.071 million.
This indicates an increase from the 121.63 million bank accounts that were recorded in April 2019.
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Similarly, the total number of active bank accounts as at May 2019 stood at 72.936 million, marking a decline by forty-one thousand from the (72.977 million) obtained in April 2019.
This low number of bank accounts compared to the linked accounts indicates that banks are not strictly adhering to the biometric registration process prior to opening new accounts. Instead, they are more interested in just opening new accounts which are often left dormant after a while because customers do not operate them.
Industry analysts are of the opinion that the large figure of BVN not yet linked to bank accounts may not likely decline as most banks allow account openings without BVN on their sites. This has also contributed to the increasing number. However, it has led to an increasing number of inactive bank accounts, and unclaimed funds in banks.
