The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed a sharp increase in the number of bank accounts flagged for suspicious activities across the nation’s financial ecosystem.
According to official data published in the CBN 2025 Annual Report and Statement of Accounts, the apex bank’s fraud watchlist grew significantly over a 12-month period, reflecting a tightening loop around cybercriminals and illicit financial flows.
The banking industry’s joint security systems successfully detected and added 3,641 new BVNs to the national fraud registry. This spike pushes the total number of blacklisted bank customers from 9,476 in 2024 to 13,117 in 2025.
The CBN clarified that major tier-1 commercial banks and deposit money institutions, including Access Bank, Zenith Bank, and the United Bank for Africa (UBA) were instrumental in expanding the list through aggressive compliance protocols.
Crucially, the apex bank noted that this statistical jump does not automatically mean financial crimes are on the rise in Nigeria. Instead, it indicates that local financial institutions are deploying highly advanced transaction monitoring systems, tighter risk management policies, and faster protocols to freeze suspicious accounts.
While fraud detection intensified, the CBN report also highlighted a historic contraction in the credit market. For the first time in six years, total consumer lending across Nigeria took a massive hit.
Outstanding consumer credit dropped by nearly 20 per cent, erasing close to ₦1 trillion from active retail loans. The CBN explicitly attributed this decline to the prevailing high-interest rate environment. As the monetary policy rate remains elevated to combat inflation, commercial borrowing has become prohibitively expensive, forcing both everyday Nigerians and small businesses to avoid taking out new loans.
