The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) advised the general public to disregard a misleading report by the Daily Trust Newspaper that the liquidation of the Fortis Micro-Finance Bank (MFB) was a hasty process.
The corporation gave the advice in a statement signed by Mr Mohammed Kudu Ibrahim, its Head of Communications and Public Affairs Department on Thursday.
It said that the corporation would always be faithful and alive to its responsibilities in protecting Nigerian Depositors at all times.
“The attention of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has been drawn to a report in the Daily Trust Newspaper of Friday, Feb. 8, 2019 which alleged a hasty liquidation of Fortis Micro-Finance Bank (MFB).
“The report relied on statements credited to one Mallam Garba Kurfi, Managing Director of APT Securities and Fund to the effect that the CBN and NDIC should have managed the affairs of Fortis MFB rather than embark on its outright liquidation.
“He added that managing affairs of the bank, its resale or the appointment of a new management would have been better for its depositors and other banks that had business relationship with Fortis as well as the economy at large.
“The report also quoted Mr Boniface Okezie, National Coordinator of Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PSAN), as expressing the view that instead of regulators aggravating the problems in the financial industry through liquidation, they should devise other means of solving them.
“He also alleged that Nigerian shareholders, in general, were ultimate victims of the liquidation of banks without any hope of compensation,” the statement said.
The corporation said ordinarily, the NDIC would have ignored the two erroneous claims, but needed to correct the wrong impression which might be created in the minds of the public.
According to the NDIC, it was pertinent to state that both allegations are false and misleading in every material particular.
