NIGERIA: Bank customers close 4.5m current accounts in 1mth -NIBSS

…Open 7m bank accounts in 2019 …As Pos, Mobile, NIP transactions rise 39% to N11.3trn

By Elizabeth Adegbesan

Customers of the 23 com-mercial banks closed 4.5 million current accounts in December 2019, representing 15 percent month-on-month decline in the total number for current accounts in the previous month.

The banks however gained 4.6 million new savings accounts in the same month, representing five percent increase in total number of bank accounts in the previous month. Meanwhile, Nigerians opened seven million new bank accounts in 2019, even as the value of electronic payment via Point of Sale, PoS, mobile payment operators, rose by  39 percent, year-on-year ( y/y),  to N11.53 trillion in 2019.

Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) disclosed this yesterday in its latest industry statistics which showed that the number of current accounts dropped by 4.5 million or 15 percent, month-on-month (m/m) to 25.3 million in December 2019, from 29.8 million in November 2019. NIBSS also reported that the number of savings accounts rose by 4.6 million or 5.0 percent, (m/m)  to 95.9 million in December 2019 from 91.3 million in November 2019.

Vanguard analysis of the NIBSS monthly industry statistics showed that that the total number of bank accounts rose by six percent, y/y to 125 million in 2019 from 118 million in 2018, indicating that  Nigerians opened seven million new accounts during the year.

According to NIBSS, the number of inactive bank accounts dropped by 70,000, or 0.15 percent, year-on-year, y/y, to 46.72 million accounts in 2019 from 46.79 million accounts in 2018.

The data also showed that the number of current accounts dropped by 2.0 percent, y/y, in 2019 to 25.3 million current accounts from 25.7 million in 2018.

However, the number of active bank accounts grew by  70,000, or 10 percent, y/y,  to 78.28 million in 2019 from 71.21 million in 2018. The number of savings account also rose by eight percent to 96 million savings accounts in 2019 from 89.12 million savings accounts in 2018.

Meanwhile, the data also showed that the upward trend in electronic payment via Point of Sale, PoS, mobile payment operators, as well as NIBSS Instant Payment channels persisted in 2019. According to NIBSS, the value of transactions through the three channels rose by 39 percent, y/y,  to N11.53 trillion in 2019 from 8.3 trillion in 2018, while the volume of the transactions increased by 55 percent, y/y,  to 181 billion transactions  in 2019 from 116.67 billion  transactions in 2018.

anguard analysis showed that the value of NIP transactions rose by 36 percent, y/y,  to N11 trillion in 2019 from N8 trillion in 2018 while the volume grew by 51 percent, y/y,  to 127 million transactions in 2019 from 84 million transactions in 2018.

Furthermore, the value of PoS transactions rose by 38 percent, y/y,  to N375 billion in 2019 from N272 billion in 2018, y/y, while the volume grew by 44 percent, y/y,  to 46.14 million transactions in 2019 from 32 million transactions in 2018.

Further analysis of data showed that the value of mobile money transactions through licensed mobile payment operators (interscheme) grew by 436 percent to N150 billion in 2019, y/y,  from N28 billion in 2018 while its volume  increased by 1098 percent, y/y,  to 8 million transactions in 2019 from 668,000 transactions  in 2018.

SOURCE: VANGUARD