The Managing Director/Chief Executive of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Mr. Thompson Oludare Sunday, has stated that the corporation now operates under stronger and more effective laws to carry out its bank liquidation responsibility.
Sunday made this known when he received the President/Chairman of Council of the Business Recovery and Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria (BRIPAN), Barrister Chimezie Ihekweazu (SAN), and other members of the council during their courtesy visit to the NDIC’s headquarters in Abuja.
A statement issued by the Head, Communication & Public Affairs Department of the NDIC, Hawwau Gambo, on the visit quoted the NDIC boss as saying that the corporation’s powers in the area of the liquidation of failed insured institutions have been significantly enhanced with the enactment of the NDIC Act No. 30 of 2023 and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020.
This is even as he maintained that the NDIC remained now better positioned to prosecute parties at fault for bank failures, unlike in the past when insufficient legal provisions allowed such individuals to evade accountability.
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While thanking the National Assembly for addressing the long-standing challenge of a weak legal framework that had constrained the corporation’s operations, Sunday also commended the Judiciary for its growing expertise in deposit insurance law and practice, as demonstrated by the effective adjudication of failed bank cases through judgments that have brought relief to depositors.
The NDIC boss clarified: “The enhanced powers granted to the corporation under the NDIC Act 30 of 2023, the BOFIA 2020 and the improved understanding of the judiciary, have made it impossible for individuals to hide under the law to escape liability.
“With stronger legal backing, individuals now approach the Corporation to settle out of court, not necessarily because the law has caught up with them, but because they can see that the noose is tightening around those responsible for bank failures”, he added.
The deposit insurance expert attributed the corporation’s ability to realise sufficient assets to declare a first round of liquidation dividends to the uninsured depositors of defunct Heritage bank Limited within one year of the revocation of its licence, to the positive impact of the new legal framework.
Sunday promised that the NDIC would continue to leverage the strengthened laws while collaborating with BRIPAN and other stakeholders to enhance the effective discharge of its mandate.
In his remarks, the BRIPAN President/Chairman of Council spoke on the association’s efforts and achievement in harmonising all insolvency-related laws in the country into a unified framework.
The legal expert noted that the efforts had significantly addressed the challenges of ineffective insolvency and business recovery practices, while introducing more viable options for solvency resolution.
He also emphasized BRIPAN’s strong focus on capacity building, calling for further collaboration between the corporation, other stakeholders in the legal and financial system and his association to strengthen insolvency and business recovery practices in the country.
Photo Caption
Managing Director/CE, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Thompson Oludare Sunday (right), presenting Deposit Insurance research publications to the President/Chairman of Council, Business Recovery and Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria (BRIPAN), Barrister Chimezie Ihekweazu (SAN), when he led the association’s team on a courtesy visit to the NDIC’s boss in the corporation’s headquarters in Abuja
