Uche Usim, Abuja
The Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has concluded plans to begin sponsoring a diploma in financial journalism in its efforts to deepen business reporting in the country.
The Managing Director of the Corporation, Mr Umaru Ibrahim who made the disclosure while addressing Business Editors and Finance Correspondents at the just-concluded 2018 seminar in Benin City assured that a Committee would be set up to that effect.
He said, “We all watch BBC, read financial times and other journals. From these media, you’d see financial journalism is very key. It deepens the knowledge of the media practitioners.
“So, we’ll set up a committee to that effect. We will weld it into the curriculum in existing schools or run it as a separate programme”, he said.
Meanwhile, the NDIC boss also revealed that arrangements to commence payment had since been tidied up.
According to him, of the 23 MMOs, eight are bank led, while 15 are non-bank led.
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He hinted that the amount provided by NDIC as deposit insurance coverage to the subscribers of MMOs in the event of liquidation is maximum limit of N500,000.
Ibrahim also said it has commenced verification of insured depositors of the affected financial houses preparatory to commence the payment to insured depositors .
“As you are all aware, the CBN recently revoked the licences of 154 microfinance banks and six Primary Mortgage Banks due to their insolvency. The affected institutions were closed because some were found to have insufficient assets to meet their liabilities, while others had their capital to risk – weighted assets ratio a and regulatory capital below the minimum prescribed by the CBN”.
” Furthermore , quite a number of the banks had ceased to carry on the type of banking business for which their licences were issued for a continuous period of more than six months while others had gone in to voluntary liquidation “, said Ibrahim.
He stressed that records obtained so far by the Corporation in respect of the affected financial institutions revealed that, majority of depositors especially those in MFBs have less than N200,000 in their accounts, an indication that NDIC will cover 100 percent of the depositors.
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NDIC MD gave his assurance that his organisation will consistently work in harmony with CBN to ensure effective supervision of the banks in order to ensure strict adherence to rules and obligations guiding banking operations.
“This is with a view to protecting depositors against fragrant disregard of extant rules by management of financial institutions thereby mitigating the occurrence of unlawful insiders’ dealings, weak internal control and over all non compliance to Prudential guidelines “.
” Also, the NDIC, in collaboration with all relevant key players in the nation’s financial system, will continue to work on several initiatives to accelerate financial literacy and financial inclusion, especially among rural communities nationwide so as to promote inclusive growth nationwide”, he said.
