CBN orders four banks to release 321,181 dormant accounts

Four banks have disclosed a total of 321,181 dormant accounts after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued a directive, The PUNCH reports.

Economic analysts say the CBN order raises significant concerns about how banks communicate with customers, the procedures for reactivating accounts, the failure of businesses, and privacy issues.

The dormant accounts listed cover individuals, companies, cooperatives, churches, clubs, community associations and small enterprises that have been inactive for more than ten years.

The banks involved are Access Bank Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank and Fidelity Bank Plc.

The disclosures follow the CBN’s July 2024 Guidelines on Management of Dormant Accounts, Unclaimed Balances and Other Financial Assets, which require financial institutions to publish dormant‑account details on their websites six months before the funds become eligible for transfer to the apex bank’s Unclaimed Balances Trust Fund Pool Account.

Analysis of the published records shows that Access Bank listed 243,934 dormant accounts, Stanbic IBTC published 26,135 dormant accounts, Fidelity Bank disclosed about 61,900 dormant accounts, and Union Bank released 212 dormant and unclaimed accounts that have been inactive for ten years or more.

Combined, the four banks account for roughly 321,181 dormant accounts. The Access Bank register reveals an almost equal split between individual and corporate dormant accounts, indicating that business inactivity is a major driver of the growing number of dormant accounts in the banking sector.

A full extraction of the Access Bank document shows 122,390 individual accounts and 120,718 corporate accounts, representing 50.34 % and 49.66 % of the total, respectively.

Fidelity Bank’s register displays a markedly different pattern, with corporate accounts making up about 79 % of dormant accounts. The 693‑page document contains approximately 48,900 corporate dormant accounts and about 13,000 individual dormant accounts.

The accounts reflect widespread inactivity among SMEs, oil‑and‑gas firms, logistics operators, churches, schools, hospitality businesses, pharmaceutical firms, marine operators and informal trading enterprises.

Several dormant accounts are linked to Lagos commercial districts such as Idumota, Oyingbo, Allen Avenue, Awolowo Road and Ladipo, while major clusters also appear around Port Harcourt’s oil‑service corridors and northern trading centres.

Union Bank’s list, though considerably smaller at 212 entries, mainly consists of cooperatives, clubs, churches, associations, alumni bodies, women’s groups and community‑development unions spread across the country.

Stanbic IBTC’s dormant‑account register, which exceeds 1,520 pages, shows strong concentrations in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Kaduna and Maiduguri. The document largely comprises current accounts, including salary accounts and joint accounts, with a smaller number of corporate and institutional accounts.

Other major lenders have taken different approaches. United Bank for Africa Plc did not publish a dormant‑account register but instead maintains an unclaimed dividend list.

First Bank of Nigeria Limited and Zenith Bank Plc provide dedicated portals for customers to search for affected accounts rather than publishing comprehensive lists.

Guaranty Trust Bank Plc released dormant‑account management guidelines without attaching a dormant‑account document, while Ecobank Nigeria offers dormant‑account reactivation services but has not published a Nigerian dormant‑account list.

Analysts react

In phone interviews with The PUNCH, analysts and finance stakeholders discussed the implications for bank‑customer communications, the need for improved customer relations and privacy concerns. They also observed that the data reveal the extent of business and corporate account closures or dormancy.

Muda Yusuf, Director of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, said the CBN directive highlights shortcomings in banks’ communication with customers. “I think it’s more about getting the banks to communicate a lot more with their customers because if the CBN is compelling them to publish, it’s a communication issue,” Yusuf said.

“So, the bank needs to do a lot more to get in touch with its customers. This is a customer service issue, actually, to know what exactly is happening, why they are not active in their accounts, what they can do to resuscitate their accounts.”

Yusuf added that worsening economic conditions and rising SME failures heavily contribute to dormant corporate accounts. “The mortality rate of businesses has grown significantly. When you are running a business, you have an account, and the business collapses because of a whole lot of issues. You just walk away from everything,” he said.

“The economic situation and the high rate of business mortality, especially among micro‑enterprises, small businesses, and even medium‑sized businesses, are also factors.”

He also criticized the account‑reactivation procedures, saying that cumbersome documentation discourages customers from reviving dormant accounts. “We need to simplify as much as possible the process of resuscitating dormant accounts,” Yusuf said. “If I have my ID card, I will give you my name. I have my BVN. I have my NIN. Why are you asking me for the NEPA bill?”

Yusuf called for reforms to simplify access to funds belonging to deceased account holders. “It’s not fair for the families of people who have died to have huge amounts of money in their accounts, and they cannot access it,” he said. “We have to simplify the process. The process is very, very bureaucratic.”

Professor Akpan Ekpo, of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Uyo, questioned the rationale for publishing dormant‑account details publicly.

“The Central Bank has examiners who can go to a bank and ask for accounts and know what they have to do without making it public,” Ekpo said. “For me, it bothers me about privacy. Because if you publish that person A has a dormant account, it doesn’t look good in terms of the environment we are living in. You can expose the person.”

Ekpo noted that the apex bank already possesses sufficient regulatory powers to inspect dormant accounts directly from banks without public disclosure.

“I don’t see any reason why that has a monetary policy purpose,” he said. “They should communicate more about why they want to do it.”

Gabriel Idahosa, former President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said dormant accounts arise for several reasons, including bank mergers, customer relocations, deaths and abandoned businesses.

“Companies collapsed, failed, and the owners did not bother to withdraw all the balances from accounts,” Idahosa said. “People who passed on and do not have the next of kin to open their accounts. There are all kinds of reasons why accounts become dormant.”

Idahosa added that many customers abandon small balances because of the stress associated with account recovery. “A couple of people tried to go to the new banks that inherited their accounts from the other banks. Especially for small amounts, people just forgot about it because of the trouble pursuing it,” he said.

He warned that publishing dormant‑account holders could trigger legal disputes and privacy concerns. “Ordinarily, the central bank should not do that because of the privacy doctrine in the relationship between the customer and the bank,” Idahosa said. “A lawyer or a group of lawyers, or even civil society organisations, can go to court to prevent the central bank from doing so.”

“It could lead to some chaos in some families, who may find that their parents have lots of money in an account and they never knew about it. Now there will be battles among the children to come and get it.”

Under the 2024 guidelines, the C