Cheapest Banks to Open a Naira Account in Nigeria

Many Nigerian banks won’t tell you what your debit card will cost, unless you ask.

In Liners’ 2026 Nigerian bank account opening study, only 17 of 100 walk-in visits ended with a debit card offered or issued at all. And of those, only four banks named an exact figure.

This makes a cheapest-to-priciest ranking impossible to do 'honestly' across all 18 banks.

Here’s what we can rank, and what we genuinely can’t.

tldr

Only four banks in Liners’ study told researchers exactly what a debit card would cost; from ₦1,000 to ₦1,500. Maintenance and SMS fees were disclosed at just 9 of 100 branch visits.

The Four Nigerian Banks That Quoted a Debit Card Fee in the Liners' Study

Ranked from lowest to highest, these are the only debit card fees Liners’ researchers received a direct answer on:

1. Wema Bank (FUTA branch): ₦1,000
2. First Bank (Bodija branch): ₦1,025 to ₦1,500
3. Keystone Bank (Ota branch): ₦1,075
4. Zenith Bank (Polytechnic branch): ₦1,250

If a bank branch does issue a card and charges for it, ₦1000 to ₦1500 is roughly what to expect.

Why We Can’t Rank the Rest

The honest answer is that most banks in the study didn’t hand out a card at account opening at all.

Fidelity Bank issued or offered one at 3 of 5 visits, the highest rate in the study, and Polaris Bank did so at 4 of 10 visits. Union, UBA, Sterling, Unity, GTBank, Ecobank, Globus and Standard Chartered offered no card at any visit our researchers logged.

No card means no fee to quote, which technically makes those banks “free” at account opening but also means you’re walking out without a way to spend from the account - until a second trip.

Maintenance and SMS Fees in Traditional Nigerian Banks: What Nobody Answers

In the Liners bank account opening research, 91 of 100 branch visits ended with no mention of a maintenance or SMS alert fee at all. Only 9 of 100 branches disclosed anything on this front.

These fees exist, and Nigerian banks are required to publish them.

They just don’t come up in the account opening conversation unless a customer asks directly, so the number on your welcome screen is rarely the full picture.

Digital Banks in Nigeria Often Skip Card Fees

19 of the 31 digital bank opens in the Liners study came with a free virtual card the same session, and none of the five apps charged an opening deposit.

If cost predictability matters more to you than a physical card in hand, digital banks in Nigeria seem to be more transparent.

But if you’re set on visiting a traditional bank branch in Nigeria, ask three questions before you sign anything:

• is there a card fee?
• is there a monthly maintenance fee?
• and is there an SMS alert fee?

Based on the Liners 2026 bank account opening research, there’s a chance nobody will answer these questions unless you ask.