NDIC pays N100bn to depositors of liquidated banks

Stories by Amaka Ifeakandu

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) said it has paid over N100 billion to depositors of liquidated banks.
The managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of the NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim who disclosed this in Lagos at the Corporation’s special day at the Lagos international trade fair said the payments are not done in secret as names are published in newspaper, radio and television whenever insured deposits and uninsured deposits were due for payment.
He urged depositors who have not responded to the NDIC calls to come forward to collect their insured deposits and liquidation dividends already declared for uninsured deposits.
The NDIC chief said that the Corporation activities through the continuous monitoring and over sight of banks, not only enhance depositors confidence in the financial system, but also serve as incentive to the unbaked to access financial services of licensed banks.
Urging members of the public to take advantage of several incentive available for Nigerian to save and have access to financial service, he said requirements to open bank account are easy to meet, adding that banking enables a depositor to save and enjoy other services like ATM transactions, Mobile banking, and mobile money products. He said that with account opening the depositor is guaranteed of his/ her savings in the event of failure up to maximum of account balance of N500,000 in the commercial/Merchant/ Mortgage bank and N200,00 in micro Finance Bank.
He said that apart from paying the insured deposits in the event of bank failure, the Corporation does not ignore the uninsured deposits, adding the NDIC deploy all legal means to recover loans of failed banks, by selling assets of such banks and proceeds are distributed as liquidated dividend among the uninsured depositors.
Ibrahim said that the protection of the depositors remains the top priority of the corporation, that was why it continues to stress the need for depositors to patronise only financial institutions that are licences by the CBN , which displayed the NDIC stickers with the word ” insured by NDIC” in their banking halls or entrances.
Ibrahim stated that the theme of the fair Promoting Industrialization for economic Recovery and sustainable Growth cannot be more apt given the nation’s quest for rapid industrialisation which is the only way, not only to steer the nation out of recession, but also to achieve the vision 20:2020.
He said the NDIC has continued to be at the forefront of driving the objectives of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy NFIS to reduce the per vintage of adult Nigerians that do not have access to financial services from 46.30 per cent in 2010 to 20.0 per cent by 2020.
To this end, he said the Corporatetion has doubled it’s efforts by providing an enabling regulatory and supervisory environment that ensures that the hard earned savings of small savers are protected.
This according to him was very vital to financial inclusion because the poor people need assurance that the licenced deposit taking institutions are safe and that they have access to their money whenever they need it.
The NDIC boss on the other hand warned Nigerians against patronising dubious fund managers popularly called “Wonder Banks”.
He said that the fund managers persuade their unsuspecting victims to part with their hard earned money with promises of interest rates that are unrealistically high as returns on their investments.
He said the result of such investment is loss of vital savings and sometimes disastrous consequences to the lives of the victims.

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