The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has restated its commitment to its mandate by ensuring that depositors’ funds are secured and by so doing, support the monetary authorities’ efforts to ensure the nation’s financial system stability.
The NDIC’s Managing Director, Mr Bello Hassan, made this promise at a retreat with the theme ‘Deposit Insurance In Nigeria-Re-Strategising for Tomorrow’ organized for members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions on Saturday in Lagos.
Represented at the forum by the NDIC’s Executive Director (Operations), Mr. Mustapha Ibrahim, the Managing Director pointed out that effective risk-based management remained critical to safe and sound banking system globally.
According to him, the corporation and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have a very strong supervisory framework under the risk-based supervisory format, adding that the risk-based approach is actually proactive.
Hassan explained: “For the most part, we try to anticipate all these risks – Macro, micro, domestically and globally – to address them continuously.
“So, it is so dynamic that we also are constantly on a real time basis, monitoring the industry continuously and fine-tuning our supervisory tools, both onsite and offsite, to mitigate some of the challenges the banks may be facing”, Hassan added.
He also expressed his delight that the Nigerian banking industry was at the moment quite resilient to most of these challenges, particularly, external shocks which the Corporation could not do anything about.
The deposit insurance expert further explained: “We have tried to immunise the system to withstand shocks that may be impacting on the economy and the financial system.”
In his remarks, Chairman, Senate Committee on Baking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Senator Uba Sani, who was represented by Sen. Olubunmi Adetunbi, said the retreat demonstrated the progress made by the executive and the legislature in forging sustainable and workable relationship in the overall interest of the country.
According to the committee’s chairman, both the National Assembly and NDIC are key institutions critical to the growth and development of the Nigerian economy, adding that “while we provide the legal and institutional frameworks, NDIC carries out its regulatory or supervisory responsibilities in order to safeguard the banking sector.
He explained: “Engagement of this nature gives us the platform to deeply look into our activities and responsibilities and also examine how far we have gone in carrying out our mandate as required.
“It helps in injecting fresh ideas into our operations which will materialise into an improved, effective and efficient service delivery to Nigerians”, Adetunbi added.
The lawmaker also expressed optimism that the outcome would help in strengthening the financial and banking sectors, and in particular the supervisory and regulatory role of the corporation.
