Nigerian banks closed 234 branches, 649 ATMs — IMF

The Worldwide Financial Fund, IMF, yesterday, mentioned that Nigerian banks closed 234 branches and 649 Automated Teller Machines, ATMs, in 2020 resulting in a decline within the nation’s Monetary Entry Rating (FAS) to 4.44 within the 12 months towards 4.78 in 2019.

The IMF disclosed this in its Monetary Entry Survey 2021 Tendencies and Developments launched yesterday. 

In line with the report, the worldwide group makes use of two FAS indicators to observe the Goal 8.10 of the 2030 Sustainable Improvement Objectives (SDGs) which goals at strengthening the capability of home monetary establishments to increase entry to banking and monetary providers.

The 2 FAS indicators are Variety of Business Financial institution Branches per 100,000 Adults and Variety of ATMs per 100,000 Adults.

In line with the report, Nigeria recorded declines in these two vital FAS indicators and  12 different indicators among the many 64 indicators measured by the FAS.

This based on the report, was because of the decline within the variety of business financial institution branches in Nigeria to five,158 in 2020 from 5,392 in 2019.

Consequently, the Variety of Business Financial institution Branches per 1,000 km2 in Nigeria fell to five.94 in 2020 from 5.68 in 2019.

Equally, when it comes to Variety of ATMs per 100,000 Adults, the nation’s Monetary Entry rating fell to 17.19 in 2020 from 16.14 in 2020.

The discount based on the IMF was to fall within the variety of ATMs in Nigeria by 649 to 18,810 in 2020 from 19,459 in 2019.

Additionally, the Variety of ATMs per 1,000 km2 in Nigeria fell to twenty.65 in 2020 from 21.36 in 2019.

The IMF report additionally confirmed a pointy decline within the variety of registered cellular cash agent shops in Nigeria to 129,154 in 2020 from 145,800 in 2019, representing 11 per cent decline.