List of all SWIFT Codes of Nigerian Banks

Swift Codes for Nigerian banks – If you have made an international transfer lately, you will have noticed that, apart from the recipient’s account number, you have also been asked for a code called SWIFT.

Although you may not know it, this makes your money movements much safer, since it avoids mistakes and speeds up bank procedures. But what exactly is the SWIFT code?

What is the SWIFT Code?

SWIFT corresponds to the acronym of Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication and is an alphanumeric code between 8 and 11 digits. Thus, the first four numbers identify the bank, the next two the country where the account is located and the next two the location of the office in which it was opened. As for the last three digits, they do not always appear and represent the number of the office itself. When they are not used, it is assumed that the account belongs to a central entity.

In addition, it is important that you know that this code is also known as BIC (Bank Identifier Code) and that banking professionals use both names interchangeably when referring to the same. This implies that if you are asked for this identification number they can refer to it in these two ways.

These codes were created to increase security when making international transfers, in order to eliminate errors, reduce waiting times and avoid additional costs.

The SWIFT Code Make up

The SWIFT or BIC code can be between 8 and 11 digits (the last 3 are optional). Below are the make up of a typical SWIFT Code:

• Entity code: it is represented by the first 4 digits of the SWIFT/BIC code and serves to identify the bank.
• Code country: is in the fifth and sixth digit code and is used to identify the bank country. For Nigeria, the code NG is used.
• Location code: the seventh and eighth number represents the city of the bank. 
• Office code: the last three digits are used to identify a specific office of the financial institution. These three numbers are optional, if they do not appear in the code, it is understood to represent the main office of the entity.

When are you asked for the SWIFT code?

The SWIFT code will be requested every time you want to make a movement of money (payment or transfer) relative to an account that is in another country. For this reason, it is important that you include this information in your invoices. Otherwise, your foreign clients will have difficulties in finalizing your transaction.

SWIFT Codes for Banks in Nigeria