The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has said it has refunded more depositors of microfinance banks whose licences were recently revoked by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
It said currently, it had refunded N1.2billion to about 34,000 depositors of 179 microfinance banks in the country.
Recall that the NDIC said it had paid N1.084billion to 29,573 depositors of the closed MFBs and Primary Mortgage Banks earlier in October, but the number had increased as the process was ongoing.
NDIC Managing and Chief Eexecutive Officer, Bello Hassan, disclosed the latest payments while speaking to journalists at the sideline of the 2023 Sensitisation Seminar for Judges of National Industrial Court of Nigeria, and members of Investments and Security Tribunal in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Tuesday.
Hassan, who was represented by the NDIC Executive Director, Operations, Mustapha Ibrahim, said the seminar was germane for stakeholders to understand the workings and nuances of the corporation and also its operational activities.
He said the theme of the seminar, ‘Strengthening depositors’ confidence in banks and other financial institutions through speedy dispensation of justice,’ was anchored on the need for strategic partnering and collaboration with the judiciary for the promotion of financial system stability in Nigeria.
Hassan stated, “Our first mandate is deposit guarantee, in other words any deposit institution that we found, we have to guarantee payment of depositors. The recent closure of 179 microfinance banks and four primary mortgage institutions and we have been resolving them in an orderly manner.
“So far we have been able to settle over 34,000 depositors of microfinance banks whose licences were recently revoked by CBN and we paid N1.2billion to settle these 34,000 depositors of microfinance banks and it is still an ongoing process, liquidation is not something you accomplished in a day or two.”
He further said the statutory functions of NDIC include deposit guarantee, bank supervision, distress resolution and bank liquidation, saying that upon the revocation of a banking license, the NDIC has the statutory powers to liquidate the insured financial institution whose license has been revoked.
Earlier in his address, Hassan listed some of the challenges facing NDIC to include, execution of judgement against the corporation for liabilities of banks in-liquidation, attachment of the assets of the corporation, including garnishee of corporation’s corporate accounts, among others.