Against fears being entertained especially by investors and Nigerian businessmen and women, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has said that all banks operating in Nigeria are healthy and that their workings are in line with global standards.
The Deputy Director, Research, (NDIC), Hashim Ahmad, disclosed this while addressing journalists shortly after the sensitization of the 2015 Batch ‘A Stream 2’, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members at the orientation camp, Paiko in Niger state. Hashim said the corporation undertakes proper supervision of the banks in the country as insurer to ensure they remain healthy, adding that “The annual report normally summarizes the healthy or otherwise status of the industry.”
“Nigerian Banks are relatively healthy in line with global standards. It is unlikely announcing the healthy status of our banks in the public but we normally say in aggregate and I think our annual report will soon be released and be made available for public scrutiny”, he said. The NDIC Deputy Director, Research said, “We don’t particularly say Bank A or B is distressed. We are simply saying that on aggregate basis we will tell you the industry is this or that, but we undertake supervision of the banks as insurer as you know, no insurer will sit back and allow his risk to crystallize before he wakes up.
“We are embarking on the supervision of Banks to ensure they remain safe and sound,” he said, explaining that the agency also undertakes the stress resolutions of most Banks. “Any Bank that is identified as distressed or in difficult operational situation is normally turned over to the NDIC for management and so we manage the affected Banks until such a time that it is deemed to be fit or safe and sound to continue in business,” he said.
Hashim also told journalists that, “In the course of doing that we take over the management and control of the Banks. We can go to that extent of managing the Bank until such a time we think it is able to stand on its feet and then we hands it back to its owners. “The NDIC as the sole liquidator of banks in Nigeria undertakes liquidation when all other avenue to resuscitate the purchase of the bank fails. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will then revoke the license and hands the bank over to NDIC for liquidation widening off of the affairs of the Bank,” he explained.
Hashim also revealed how soon Savannah Bank will back on business, saying, “We expect the Bank to bounce back soonest because it has been handed over to the owners. At our own end, (NDIC), we can only act and exercise our own mandate when a licence is revoked by the CBN.”
Recall that Savannah Bank’s licence was revoked in 2002, and they dragged the regulator (CBN) to Court, and an injunction was given that their licence be restored. “As Savannah Bank stands today, the licence has been restored by the CBN and there is nothing NDIC can do in terms of paying off depositors, since their licence is back to them. And we can’t go and pay anybody,” he said
