What Happens When Your Bank Account Becomes Dormant in Nigeria

A dormant account in Nigeria is not a closed account, and the money in it is not gone. After a year without customer activity the account moves into a restricted status that limits what can leave it. If nobody touches it for ten years or more, the balance is transferred to the Central Bank of Nigeria and held in the Unclaimed Balances Trust Fund, where it can still be claimed.

The rules come from the Guidelines on the Management of Dormant Accounts, Unclaimed Balances and Other Financial Assets in Banks and Other Financial Institutions in Nigeria, issued in 2024 under Section 72 of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020.

The thresholds exist for a reason. They stop banks from treating idle deposits as income or loading unauthorised maintenance charges onto accounts nobody is watching.

Plenty of account holders assume an untouched account eventually eats itself. Under the regulations dormancy works the other way round: it is a custody arrangement meant to keep the money safe until the owner comes back for it.

Inactive is not the same as dormant

Under Section 72 of BOFIA 2020 and the 2024 CBN framework, banks have to separate accounts that have simply gone quiet from accounts that have hit formal dormancy.

An account becomes inactive when no customer-initiated transaction happens for six to twelve consecutive months on any channel, branch or digital.

Customer-initiated means the owner did it: cash deposits, over the counter withdrawals, electronic transfers, POS card payments, ATM transactions.

Anything the system does on its own does not count. Interest credited, maintenance charges debited, standing regulatory deductions, none of these keep an account active.

Once customer inactivity passes twelve continuous months, the bank must reclassify the account as dormant and restrict outward debits. That restriction is the protection, since it is what keeps a third party from draining an account the owner is not monitoring.

Banks are also required to tell you. A formal alert must go out by email, SMS, or registered post when the account is classified dormant, followed by quarterly update notices after that.

The ten year mark and the Unclaimed Balances Trust Fund

Ten years is the point where the money leaves the commercial banking system and goes into the custody of the central bank.

The assets that qualify for transfer after ten years of dormancy include current account deposits, savings balances, term deposits, domiciliary foreign currency accounts, prepaid card balances, digital wallets, and investment returns.

Transferred balances are pooled into the CBN Unclaimed Balances Trust Fund. The money is ring fenced and invested in federal government securities, and none of that changes who legally owns it.

Some long dormant accounts are exempt from the transfer. Accounts under active litigation, accounts tied to unsatisfied judgment debts, accounts under regulatory investigation, and assets pledged as collateral all stay where they are.

Foreign currency held in a dormant domiciliary account keeps its original currency when it moves, so the value is not converted away before the owner claims it.

The effect of the ring fencing is straightforward. A long gap in activity cannot be used as a reason to shave the balance down with administrative levies or fold it into a bank’s own books.

Reactivating a dormant account

If the account has not yet crossed the ten year line, reactivation is done at the bank holding it, and it means completing a standard Know Your Customer revalidation.

Bring valid identification: a National Identification Number slip, a voter card, an international passport, or a driver’s licence, along with an updated Bank Verification Number printout.

The bank then checks the historical signature mandate, current proof of address such as a utility bill, and biometric records before it lifts the debit freeze.

Reactivation is free. The CBN prohibits banks and other financial institutions from charging processing fees, penalties, or administrative levies to reactivate a dormant account.

That also makes any third party offering paid recovery services worth avoiding. Every step of reactivation is done directly at the bank counter or through the bank’s own authenticated electronic channels.

Once the verification clears, the account works normally again and the holder can transfer and withdraw without restriction.

Claiming money already transferred, including for a deceased holder

When a balance has already gone to the Unclaimed Balances Trust Fund after ten years, the right to claim it does not expire. The owner or the legal heir keeps it.

The process starts at the bank where the account was originally held. You submit an Unclaimed Balance Reclaim Form, and the bank forwards the authenticated claim to the CBN for release of the funds.

For a deceased account holder, the next of kin, family administrator, or legal executor has to present certified copies of Letters of Administration or an authenticated Grant of Probate issued by a High Court.

After the CBN compliance division verifies the claim, the full principal plus any accrued interest is paid back through the commercial bank into the claimant’s active verified account.

The CBN also runs a central verification registry, which lets individuals and companies search for historical balances held across Nigerian banks.

Because the registry and the reclaim process have no expiry, forgotten deposits and unclaimed corporate dividends stay recoverable long after the original holder stopped watching them.

Keeping an account from going dormant

If you hold several accounts, the simplest protection is to run a small debit transaction through each one from time to time, or to consolidate the balances into the account you actually use.

Keeping your contact details current matters just as much. The statutory quarterly dormancy warnings only help if the phone number, email, and address on file still reach you, and for a company the same applies to the officers listed on the mandate.