Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has said it has so far paid out N1.2 billion to insured creditors of some of the 189 Microfinance Banks (MFB) and the four Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMI) recently liquidated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
It said that though the Act setting up the corporation provides that payment to insured creditors should be made within 30 days, it has been able to effect payment within seven days.
“So far, we have paid about N1.2 billion insured deposits to the depositors in the Microfinance Banks and Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMI).
“We are still paying but why we have not completed payment is that there are some customers that we do not have their records or their BVN to identify their alternate bank accounts in other banks,” Bello Hassan, managing director/chief executive of the corporation, stated this in an interview with journalists in Uyo, Akwa Ibom during the 2023 sensitisation seminar for Federal High Court judges organised by NDIC in conjunction with the National Judicial Institute.
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“I want to put it on record that we have been able to pay some of the insured depositors in less than seven days. This we have achieved because we consciously embarked on collecting depositors’ information through single customers framework and we are leveraging on NIN platform,” he said.
According to Hassan, the corporation has also released N1.6 billion to pay creditors and depositors of the 20 commercial banks recently liquidated, adding that plans have been concluded to pay them as quickly as possible.
Hassan, who called on depositors to come forward with information that would help in the payment of the insured depositors, said the corporation was able to achieve speedy payment within seven days because “we have been able to identify alternative bank accounts of the deposits in other banks.”
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He expressed the hope that the seminar would ensure a better understanding of the practice of deposit insurance in the country and enhance the dispensation of justice in cases that are brought before Federal High Courts and other courts of superior records in the country.
Also speaking, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, John Tsoho said judges needed to keep abreast with the best international standard in deposit insurance processes which he said was the essence of the seminar.
He expressed the hope that it would address the issue of delayed dispensation of justice adding that the causes of the delays would be exhaustively discussed and solutions proffered.
The seminar is attended by federal high court judges across the country
