NDIC also noted that 99 percent of Heritage Bank depositors have total balances of less than N5m in their accounts
By Kehinde Okeowo
The Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has told customers of Heritage Bank not to panic, saying it is already in the process of repaying depositors of the bank.
This was disclosed by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NDIC, Bello Hassan, while addressing journalists on the liquidation of Heritage Bank in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to him, preliminary investigations showed that the failed bank had about N650bn total deposits which he said could be more because there could be other deposits that were not immediately ascertained.
He went on to say the bank has a total of 2.3m depositors with 99.9 percent having a balance of less than N5million deposits with the bank.
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He also assured that the NDIC will leverage the powers of the Act establishing it to recover the money from the debtors of the bank.
“Those powers are really sufficient for us to track those debtors and recover the monies and pay the creditors. We want to assure depositors that there is no need to panic. They will get their money back,” the MD said.
He further added that the guarantee is for all depositors despite the number of accounts the customer has with the liquidated bank.
“Payment of this insured amount is going to kick off within week. We are going to pay the insured deposit within one week,” he also assured.
Hassan then urged all bank customers to continue their legitimate businesses, assuring that the banking system is sound and safe.
TheNiche had earlier reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday withdrew the operational licence of the bank for poor performance, saying it has “no reasonable prospects of recovery, thereby making the revocation of the license the next necessary step.”