Protocol

Your Excellency, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (GCON), Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; the Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, our highly respected friends from the media; other distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.

It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you all to this Special Lecture and Book Launch, put together to kick-start the series of events lined up to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC). Today is indeed a significant milestone in the history of the Nigerian banking system since the establishment of the Corporation 30 years ago.

I wish to appreciate His Excellency , President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR for the confidence reposed in the Board to lead the Corporation at this time in the nation’s development

As you may be aware, the Deposit Insurance System (DIS) plays a very critical role in the sustenance of financial stability in the economy of any nation. In Nigeria, the over-riding public policy objective of the DIS is to protect the small and especially uninformed depositors. The DIS reduces the incidence of bank runs and improves the risk management culture of insured institutions through the robust implementation of the four (4) broad mandates of the Corporation, namely; Deposit Guarantee, Bank Supervision, Failure Resolution and Liquidation.

Despite the obvious gaps in its enabling Act, in the past 30 years, the NDIC has been able to demonstrate the uncommon capacity for efficiency and effective performance to the extent that as we gather here today, we can confidently state that it has effectively implemented its mandate with the close support and collaboration of other key members of the nation’s financial safety net, particularly the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

At this point, let me speak briefly about some of the achievements of the NDIC since its establishment following the promulgation of Decree No. 22 of 1988, now repealed and replaced with NDIC Act No. 16 of 2006. There were about seven technically insolvent banks in the system when the Corporation was established 30 years ago. But even with its relative inexperience at the time, the Corporation still improvised and superintended over the swift and orderly resolution of the affected banks in the system.

In the past 30 years, not only has the Corporation discharged its role as an active player in the Nigerian financial safety-net, it also guaranteed the funds of depositors up to the maximum limit stipulated under its enabling Act. In conjunction with the CBN, it has also meticulously discharged its role as a risk minimizer, and has been involved in the supervision of insured institutions. Over the years it was able to evolve multiple failure resolution options such as the “Purchase and Assumption” mechanism as well as the “Bridge Bank” in the handling of distressed financial institutions to the admiration of other Deposit Insurers in Africa, and the rest of the world.

On the liquidation of distressed financial institutions, the performance of the NDIC has also been very credible. To date, the NDIC has paid the cumulative sum of over ₦8.25 billion as insured amount to 442,999 depositors of closed DMBs. The sum of over ₦100 billion has been paid by the Corporation as liquidation dividend to uninsured depositors of closed DMBs in the system, while the total liquidation dividend declared for shareholders of DMBs-in-liquidation stood at over N4 billion. Also, the Corporation has paid a cumulative sum of over N2.97 billion to 83,415 depositors of MFBs in the system.

Your Excellency, Distinguished guests, today, as I speak, the NDIC Academy continues to play host to delegates from other DIS jurisdictions in Africa on capacity building. The Corporation was co-founder of the International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI) in the year 2002. Today, not only is the NDIC represented on the Executive Council (EXCO) of IADI, the Managing Director/Chief Executive, Umaru Ibrahim, is also the Chairman of the IADI-African Regional Committee. Our strength in our umbrella organization IADI which organisation is here represented, was recently justified as we signed collaborative agreements with CDIC Taiwan and KDIC, South Korea.

The Corporation remains resolute and fully committed to discharging its role as an active component of the Nigerian financial safety-net, particularly in the area of engendering confidence and contributing to financial system stability. The NDIC will continue to partner and collaborate with relevant local and international agencies in that regard.

We especially appreciate and commend the Hon. Minister and Permanent Secretary Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning for their constant support. We equally appreciate the support of the National Assembly each time we reach out to them.

On behalf of the Board, the Management and Staff of the NDIC, I wish to express our appreciation to all our invited guests present here, especially our guest speaker and foreign guests for finding time to attend this programme to commemorate our 30th anniversary.

Thank you, and God bless you all.