The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued new guidelines to commercial banks on the operations of dormant accounts which have received no deposit or withdrawal for upwards of one year.Information Guide Nigeria

LEGIT.NG reports the new guideline is contained in the bank’s circular to commercial banks issued on Wednesday, April 12, 2023.

The Central Bank of Nigeria revealed that it shall open a pool account to warehouse all funds left in dormant savings and current and domiciliary accounts.

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The bank said it would invest the warehoused funds in Treasury Bills and other interest-yielding ventures and return the profits to the owners of the accounts upon reactivation. Per the circular, the dormant accounts shall be reopened and the funds, including interest rates, returned to the owners upon request within two days. It directed commercial banks to continue paying interest into dormant accounts and maintain period communications with account owners via emails, text messages, and other necessary mediums. CBN moves to establish special committee for management of funds.NYSC Portal

CBN stated that: “The continuous maintenance of such accounts results in the accumulation of huge unclaimed balances at the disposal of the financial institutions for which the depositors may not be adequately compensated. In addition, dormant and unclaimed balances are increasingly susceptible to fraudulent transactions or abuse.”

It added: “A bank account shall be classified as dormant if there has been no customer or depositor-initiated transaction in it for one (1) year after the last customer or depositor-initiated transaction.

“The bank shall institute controls consistent with its precautionary policies, including surveillance procedures and 58-level authorization. To make such account active, the customer is to provide satisfactory evidence of account ownership, means of identification, and present place of residence.

“Unclaimed funds shall be categorized as Proceeds of stale local and foreign currency drafts not yet presented for payment by beneficiaries. Funds received from a correspondent bank without sufficient details as to the rightful beneficiary and/or a recall of funds made to the remitting bank to which the Nigerian bank’s account had not been debited; and a judgment debt for which the judgment creditor has not claimed the amount of judgment award.”JAMB Result

According to LEGIT.NG, report say that about N500 billion have been left by their owners in abandoned bank accounts as of January 2021.