Market operators call for NDIC and AMCON merger

By Niyi Olaoye

The former Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Professor (Mrs) Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, has urged the Federal Government to wind down the operations of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and merge it with the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

The advice came on the tail of accusation of the corporation of inefficiency by the former Managing Director of defunct Fortune Bank, Mr. Fidelis Tilije.

Okereke-Onyiuke, dropped the bombshell on Wednesday in Lagos at the launch of the book, “Inside Nigerian Banks”, by Nik Ogbulie.  She wondered why the Federal Government still funding the organisation like NDIC, adding that if merged with AMCON and its workforce pruned would save the nation a lot of money.

Earlier, Tilije, who is now Delta State Commissioner for Water Resources Development, had called for the scrapping of the body, saying it amounts to duplication of duties since the functions of NDIC has already been taken over by AMCON.

“NDIC is funded by banks the same way AMCON is also funded by the banks. But NDIC won’t do anything when depositors are in trouble. They will be nowhere to be found, while AMCON is solely responsible for the recovery of debts from debtors. So the NDIC should be scrapped,” he said.

Toeing the same line of thought, Onyiuke-Onyiuke   accused NDIC of not doing its job, saying that if the Corporation was still alive, why its job should be handed over to AMCON.

Her words: “I agreed with Tilije that the NDIC should be scrapped. Scrapping it means nothing because AMCON will do what NDIC supposed to have done. Government institutions do not create wealth. They only spend. We don’t need NDIC.

“ It is dead. If it is alive, why was AMCON created. I believe NDIC should be scrapped or merged with AMCON so that they can effectively protect people’s deposit in banks. The staff should be reduced and they should be given power to work. Practising bankers should be there to run the operations; they should not bring any civil servants.”

By so doing, it will save Nigeria a lot of money. As it is now, NDIC is not doing its work, but AMCON is working because it is set up by legislation.”

But in defending NDIC, Mr Jibril Aku, the Group Head, Strategy, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), said NDIC is not a resolution mechanism for banking credit.

He added: “If there is a problem, NDIC doesn’t have the enabling environment that AMCON has. AMCON has legislation backing it up that allows the CBN governor to inject some money into the system. We pay 26.5 per cent of total assets to AMCON fund every year. These resolutions mechanisms are not available to NDIC”.