The Managing Director of Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Mr. Umaru Ibrahim, has said the corporation has commenced the verification of insured depositors of failed banks claims, so as to start payment of verified claims.
Speaking at the NDIC’s Special Day at the 2018 Kano International Trade Fair, in Kano Thursday, Umaru noted that from the records obtained so far, majority of the depositors, especially in the liquidated Micro Finance Banks (MFBs) have less than N200,000.00 in their accounts.
The NDIC managing director said the measure adopted by the corporation on MFBs will enhance financial system stability in subsequent periods, adding that the corporation has embarked on various public awareness campaigns in the media in order to forestall future reoccurrence.
Ibrahim, who was represented by the corporation’s Controller of Kano Zonal Office, Alhaji Bashir Nuhu, added that: ”The corporation will continue to work closely with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to ensure effective supervision of the banks, so as to ensure strict adherence to rules and regulations guiding banking operations in order to protect depositors in the domestic financial system against flagrant disregard of extant rules by management of financial institutions.
”The collaboration with CBN will help to minimise occurrence of unlawful insiders’ dealings, weak internal control and overall non-compliance to prudential guidelines.”
Also, it vowed to not only probe but prosecute all those behind the failure of the defunct Sky Bank Plc, so as to serve as deterrent to others.
He said that the NDIC adopted Bridge Bank option to resolve the failure of the defunct Sky Bank Plc, following the revocation of its operational licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
With this arrangement, he said Polaris Bank was able to continue the banking operations in the 277 branches of the defunct Sky Bank, adding that about 6,000 jobs were saved and depositors have unhindered access to their deposits in excess of N949.60 billion as at June 2018.
According to him, all those that contributed to the failure of the bank are being investigated by relevant agencies of the government and would be prosecuted to serve as deterrent to others.
