NDIC to repay Heritage Bank customers within one week – MD assures depositors
The Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has reassured depositors of Heritage Bank that their funds will be repaid promptly.
Managing Director Bello Hassan announced at a press briefing that the NDIC will expedite the repayment process, aiming to settle claims within one week instead of the 30 days required by law. He added that NDIC staff are already stationed at all bank locations to begin verifying insured deposits.
He said; ”All depositors are currently being verified for onward payment of insured benefit of N5 million, depositors with insured deposits above N5 million will be paid upon the sale of the assets of the bank”, said Hassan.
”The 2023 NDIC Act recommends payment of liquidated banks within 30 days, you recall that initially, the recovery rate was low but with the new Act, the NDIC has been given more powers.
”The NDIC is poised to do this within one week for the insured depositors, there is no time frame for repaying the uninsured depositors.
The NDIC boss said so far, the amount of deposits at the liquidated Heritage Bank stands at N650 billion but could be more by the end of verification while loans borrowed and unrepaid in the bank stand at N700 billion.
Hassan explained, ”There are about 2.3 million depositors with Heritage Bank, with 116 branches of the bank across the country, 99.9% of the depositors have a balance of less than N5 million, only about 4,000 people have a deposit of 5 million and above with the bank.
”Our guarantee of repayment is per depositor, which means if you have three accounts, savings, current or whatever, we will merge the three accounts because you are one person, after that we determine the amount you are to be paid ranging from five million and below.
