Speaking at the Lagos international trade fair in Lagos, the Managing Director (NDIC), Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim observed that the requirements to open a bank account are easy to meet, adding that “Banking enables a depositor to save and enjoy services such as Automated Teller Machine (ATM) transactions, mobile banking and money products.
“The depositor is also guaranteed of his/her savings in the event of bank failure up to the maximum account balance of N500,000 in a commercial/merchant/mortgage bank and N200,000 in a microfinance bank.”
He said that apart from paying the insured deposits in the event of bank failure, the Corporation does not ignore the uninsured deposits.
NDIC according to Ibrahim, deploys all legal means to recover loans of failed banks, and sells assets of such banks and the proceeds distributed ( as liquidation dividend) among the uninsured depositors.
He stressed the need for depositors to patronise only financial institutions that are licensed by the CBN and which displays the NDIC sticker with the words: “Insured by NDIC” in their banking halls or entrances and hence sounded a note of warning against patronising dubious fund managers, otherwise known as “wonder banks”.
“They persuade their unsuspecting victims to part with their hard earned money with promises of interest rates that are unrealistically high as the returns on their investments. The result is the loss of vital savings and sometimes disastrous consequences to the lives of the victims,” he stressed.
The NDIC boss said the emerging trend of investing in digital currencies popularly known as Bitcoins is equally dangerous because just like the Wonder banks, the digital currencies are not licensed by the CBN and are therefore not insured by the NDIC .
“Knowledge is power and we believe that depositors who are enlightened about the benefits and limitations of deposit insurance are empowered to make informed financial decisions that would contribute to their quality of life,” he stated.
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