Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has expressed confidence in the ability of the new board and management of the NDIC led by Ronke Sokefun whom he described as an experienced lawyer and Umaru Ibrahim and experienced technocrat to steer the Corporation in the right direction.
VP Osinbajo made the comment during the courtesy call paid on him by the board and management of the Corporation on Friday the 5th of April 2019, in his office at the State House, Aso Rock, Abuja.
While congratulating the Chairman and other members of the board for their appointment, Vice President Osinbajo also commended the Management of the Corporation for prioritizing the interests of Nigerian depositors in its choice of the bridge bank option for the resolution of many banks in liquidation.
Commenting further, the Vice President noted that a lot still needs to be done in the area of sanitizing the banking system. He also stressed the need for fresh ideas to produce a more resilient structure involving the NDIC and other relevant stakeholders to address the issue of Non-performing loans in the industry and warned that the federal government was not prepared to repeat the mistakes of the past.
On the issue of financial inclusion, the Vice President remarked that it was desirous for millions of poor Nigerians to be empowered through the extension of credit and urged for a sustainable framework to achieve the objectives set by the regulators. He lamented that the current structure for the operation of Micro-Finance Banks (MFBs) had failed to achieve the desired goals and called for concerted efforts of the relevant institutions including CBN and NDIC to come up with a framework that would facilitate the funding of federal government social intervention programs such as the N-Power, Trader-Money, and Market-Money so as to alleviate the suffering of millions of Nigerians.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Board of the Corporation had thanked the Vice President for his warm reception and recalled that the NDIC as a critical player in the Nigerian financial safety-net, had achieved remarkable success in the execution of its primary mandates of effective supervision of the insured banks, timely payment of insured deposits and the implementation of a robust and efficient failure resolution regime.
The Chairman concluded her remarks by drawing the attention of the Vice-President to the NDIC Amendment Bill currently pending before the Senate and solicited for his assistance in ensuring a quick passage of the Bill before the expiry of the present legislative session.
In his remarks, Umaru Ibrahim, managing director/CEO of the Corporation, joined the Chairman in seeking for the assistance of the Vice President towards the speedy passage the Bill to amend the NDIC Act pending at the Senate to strengthen the capacity of the Corporation effectively supervise insured financial institutions for a safe and sound banking system in the country. Commenting further on the activities of the Corporation, the NDIC boss informed the Vice President that the NDIC undertakes periodic examination of banks in collaboration with the CBN and issues reports with far reaching recommendations to the Boards of banks for compliance to ensure the safety, soundness and stability of the Nigerian banking system.
Ibrahim concluded his remarks by recalling the efforts of the regulatory/supervisory authorities to sanitize and strengthen the micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs), through enhanced capital requirements of MFBs and the establishment of a National Microfinance Bank to enable that subsector play their role of providing credit.
Hope Moses-Ashike
