First Bank, Zenith, Eight Others Raked N1.24tn From Account Maintenance, Electronic Transfer Levies

Ten Deposit Money Banks (DMB) earned a total of N1.24tn from their customers as maintenance fees and electronic banking charges in 2024 and 2023, according to an investigation by THE WHISTLER.

These charges account for a significant portion of their revenue in the years under review.

The banks are United Bank for Africa (UBA), Zenith Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), First Bank of Nigeria Holding Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc, Stanbic IBTC, Sterling Bank, Wema Bank Plc and Unity Bank Plc.

Details of the records seen by THE WHISTLER showed that customers of the banks were charged N760bn in 2024 and N461.6bn in 2023 for account maintenance and electronic payments fees.

Out of the N760bn charged in 2024, a total of N537bn was on electronic transactions while N224bn was charged to customers’ current accounts for maintenance.

The N461.6bn charged on customers’ accounts in 2023 are broken down as N148.69bn for account maintenance fees and N312.94bn for electronic transactions.

Account maintenance fees are charged to current account holders. The amount is negotiable according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and not exceeding N1 per mille in respect of all customer-induced debit transactions.

In the competition for mega revenues, the ten banks debited their customers N372.3bn for account maintenance in 2023 and 2024 alone.

The debits on customers’ accounts have raised serious concerns in the past two years.

On April 1, 2025, Sterling Bank admitted that electronic charges on customers were exploitative and challenged other banks to halt the debits.

“Nigerians are no fools. Enough is enough. No more quiet suffering.

“We’re doing our part by cancelling transfer fees. Let the other banks copy.”

UBA, Zenith Customers Suffer Highest Debit

United Bank Of Africa made the highest revenue from customers. UBA charged its customers N236.3bn in 2024 and N125.57bn in 2023 for electronic payments, making a total of N361.9bn charges on e-transactions alone.

For account maintenance, UBA debited its customers a total of N50.7bn broken down as N30.5bn in 2024 and N20.2bn in 2023. In two years, UBA charged its customers N412.6bn for account maintenance and electronic fees.

Zenith Bank customers followed as the second most billed during the period with a total of N251.99bn in two years.

In 2024 and 2023, the bank charged its customers N131.8bn for electronic fees. A breakdown showed Zenith Bank debited customers N80bn in 2024 and N51.8bn in 2023.

The bank also debited N120.1bn from customers’ accounts as account maintenance fees, divided into N72.9bn in 2024 and N47.2bn in 2023.

First Bank debited its customers N76.8bn in 2024 and N66.34bn in 2023 for electronic charges making N143.1bn in two years.

FBN also debited its customers N36.9bn in 2024 and N22.3bn in 2023 for account maintenance, adding up to N59.2bn. In total, First Bank charged customers N202.4bn for account maintenance and e-payment in the two years.

Guaranty Trust Bank charged its customers N152.2bn for account maintenance and electronic payment in 2024 and 2023.

The bank debited customers N56.6bn and N40.8bn in 2024 and 2023 respectively, while it charged customers N32.1bn and N22.8bn for account maintenance fees during the review period.

FCMB charged a total of N52.9bn for account maintenance and e-transactions. In 2024 and 2023, the banks debited N13.9bn and N8.7bn as account maintenance fees.

Also, customers of the bank were debited N13.7bn and 17bn in 2024 and 2023 for electronic fees.

Wema Bank was not left out of the revenues from account maintenance and electronic fees as it harvested N32.7bn from customers in 2024 and 2023.

For electronic fees, Wema Bank customers were debited N14.1bn and N7.3bn in 2024 and 2023 respectively. The bank’s customers suffered a debit of N7.3bn and N3.95bn for account maintenance in 2024 and 2023.

For Fidelity Bank, customers were charged N31.4bn in 2024 and 2023 for account maintenance and e-banking fees.

A breakdown showed that N12.9bn and 10.4bn were debited from customers in 2024 and 2023 for account maintenance, totaling N23.3bn while N4.4bn and N3.6bn were charged for e-payment during the period.

Sterling Holding charged its customers N26.6bn for account maintenance fees and electronic payment fees.

The bank charged a total of N8.2bn in 2024 for electronic fees and N8.1bn in 2023. For account maintenance, Sterling debited its customers N5,4bn in 2024 and N4.87bn in 2023.

Stanbic IBTC customers also saw N25.9bn debits for account maintenance and electronic payments. In 2024 and 2023, Stanbic debited N10.4bn and N6.8bn for account maintenance.

Similarly, in the same period, the bank charged its customers N4.4bn and N4.42bn for electronic payments.

Unity Bank had the smallest chunk of revenue from account maintenance and e-banking charges of N9bn in 2024 and 2023 combine.

For account maintenance fees, Unity Bank debited customers N1.16bn in 2024 and N1.5bn in 2023 while e-banking charges amounted to N2.36bn and N3.96bn in 2024 and 2023.

First Bank, Zenith, Eight Others Raked N1.24tn From Account Maintenance, Electronic Transfer Levies is first published on The Whistler Newspaper