The National Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has warned members of the public to stop patronising wonder banks that are offering mouth-watering interest rates.

The Managing Director of the Corporation, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, gave the warning at the ongoing 31st Enugu International Trade Fair in Enugu on Wednesday.

Ibrahim said the wonder banks were offering attractive interest rates just to dupe unsuspected people of their hard-earned income.

The managing director was represented by the South-East Zonal Comptroller of the corporation, Mr Veronica Ogbo-Ikwue.

He said that the wonder banks were neither licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) nor were they under the NDIC deposit insurance scheme.

Ibrahim advised people to rather patronise insured banking institution that displays the NDIC sticker in their banking premises.

She said that NDIC would continue to protect depositors through prompt operational responses to novel developments in the banking system as they evolve.

“People should desist from keeping their monies in homes or shops to avoid the dangers of fire, theft, armed robbery, flood or other forms of losses.

“The public policy objective of the corporation is to protect depositors of licensed banks as well as promoting public confidence in the financial system.

“The objective is derived from the NDIC mandate of deposit guarantee, bank supervision, distress resolution and bank liquidation.

“Since its establishment, over 30 years ago, the corporation had recorded numerous achievements in the discharge of its mandates.

“The NDIC has fully paid all the depositors of the 18 closed deposit money banks all their monies both insured and uninsured that were trapped in such banks,’’ Ibrahim said.

He said that the corporation had developed a framework for the extension of deposit insurance cover to the tune of N500,000 per depositor for depositors in banks.

“The NDIC, like other critical participants in the financial system, is fully aware of its obligations towards the fulfilment of the federal government’s policies on the growth and development of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

“We are aware the SMEs remain the major catalysts for employment generation and poverty alleviation.

“The middle class and small businesses will require safe and secured access to financial services.’’

In an address, the ECCIMA President, Mr Emeka Nwandu congratulated NDIC for the role it played towards building the confidence of bank depositors, which he said, “is helping to grow the Nigerian financial sector’’.

Nwandu encouraged the CBN through its regulatory framework to make the work of NDIC much easier by ensuring that the chances of bank failure were reduced to the barest minimum.

He commended the CBN and NDIC as key players in the financial sector for the stability and near tranquility in the banking sector. (NAN)