By Elizabeth Adegbesan
Customers of leading commercial banks in Nigeria paid N25.1 billion as account maintenance fee in the first quarter of this year (Q1’22). This represents a 17 percent year-on-year (YoY) increase when compared to N21.4 billion the customers of those banks paid in corresponding period of 2021, Q1’21.
The banks are Guaranty Trust Bank , GTB (N5.17 billion), Union Bank (N589 million), Access Bank (N6.04 billion), Zenith Bank (N9.27 billion), Fidelity Bank (N1.2 billion), Unity Bank (N368.6 million), Sterling Bank (N911 million), Wema Bank (N634.5 million), and Stanbic IBTC (N927 million).
Wema Bank recorded the highest increase in account maintenance fees at N634.5 million in Q1’22, 44.7 percent higher than N438.4 million recorded in Q1’21. But Stanbic IBTC account maintenance fee fell by 31 percent to N927 million in Q1’22 from N1.35 billion in Q1’21, just as Unity Bank’s account maintenance fees declined by 12 percent to N368.6 million in Q1’22 from N419.5 million in Q1’21.