NDIC reassures depositors Nigerian banks are healthy

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has reassured Nigerians that the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in the country are healthy despite recession.

Managing Director of NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim who stressed this added that 90 per cent of depositors are covered by the corporation with the deposit insured limit pegged at N500,000.

He gave the assurance while speaking at the NDIC Special Day at the ongoing Abuja International Trade Fair and lamented that despite repeated warning, some Nigerians still fall prey to fraudsters.

He used the opportunity to warn members of the public to be mindful of dubious fund managers who lure their victims with irresistible, but fraudulent and unsustainable interest on deposits.

According to  him, “Members of the public are, therefore, advised to patronise only banking institutions be it DMBs, PMBs, MMOs and MFBs with a display of the NDIC stickers carrying the words: ‘Insured by NDIC’ in their banking halls or entrances and various branches across the country. “Without any doubt, these wonder banks or illegal fund managers are neither licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria nor are they under the NDIC deposit insurance scheme,” he said.

He revealed that about 27,000 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members have been trained on principles of financial literacy as part of its financial inclusion campaign.

“These NYSC members are across 17 states of the country and they have benefitted from NDIC’s financial literacy campaign on the roles of the corporation in the banking system.

“Efforts are on-going to cover the remaining states on continuous basis for the purpose of enlarging the scope of financial inclusion and financial education towards consumer protection in the country.”

He said under the purview of Financial System Strategy 2020 (FSS2020), which is a collaboration with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the corporation has continued to partner with all stakeholders to propagate the objectives of National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) to reduce the percentage of Nigerians excluded from formal financial services.

In order to reduce the number of financially excluded from 46.3 percent in 2010 to 20 percent in 2020, NDIC has published various books for primary and secondary school pupils including the general public.

Speaking earlier, President of Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Tony Ejikonye said the choice of the 2016 fair theme “Make it in Nigeria” was made in response to the current realities of the economy.

“Make it in Nigeria is a clarion call to governments at all levels to do the needful to improve the business environment and encourage the operations of the private sector, especially the small and medium enterprises” , he said.