The number of active bank accounts in Nigeria increased to 133.5 million in 2021, according to the data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS). The NIBSS data shows that out of the active bank accounts, individual accounts represent 92% at 122.3 million, while the remaining are corporate accounts. As of the end of 2020, total active bank accounts in the country stood at 114.8 million. This means that a total of 18.7 million new bank accounts were opened in 2021. The data also shows that the number of current accounts rose by 14% to 49.8 million in 2021 from 43.6 million in 2020.
In the same vein, savings accounts increased by 7.8% to 120.4 million in 2021 from 111.7 million in 2020. Meanwhile, the number of inactive bank accounts in the country stood at 57.9 million in the year under review. From the NIBSS data, the total number of bank accounts in the country as of 2021 was 191.4 million, out of which 133.5 were actively in use. This shows an increase of 11% or 5.7 million in the number of inactive banks accounts for the year as the inactive accounts stood at 52.2 million in 2020.
