By GINIKA OKOYE

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) says the corporation is managing assets of almost 600 failed banks and working to ensure that depositors are paid their uninsured deposits.

Mrs Patricia Okosun, the Director, Asset Management Department of the NDIC, said this at a sensitisation seminar for Debt Recovery Agents in Abuja on Thursday.

Okosun said that the corporation was managing over 560 assets of MicroFinance Banks (MFBs) and about 32 Deposit Money Banks (DMBs).

She said that the seminar was to sensitise the agents on the powers given to them by the NDIC Act of 2023 in debt recovery of failed banks.

Okosun said that the NDIC’s target was to ensure that every single loan was recovered.

“What we are here for is actually the risk assets, that is the loans and advances that were given out when the banks were in operation.

“That is actually what the debt recovery agents seek to recover and that is what we are trying to sensitise them.

“We want to let them know the powers we have, and since they are agents, we are also transferring to them to use, to help recover the risk assets that we have firmed out to them,” she said.

Okosun said that the NDIC sought to recover all the loans because they would be used to pay depositors.

Olufemi Kushimo, the Director, Legal Department of NDIC, said that the seminar was to sensitise, inform, and educate the debt recovery agents on the powers of the NDIC Act 2023.

Kushimo said that the Act was a full recovery tool to enhance the corporation’s debt recovery mechanism to fulfil its mandate of deposit guarantee and payment of uninsured portion of failed bank deposits.

He said that the seminar would help to enhance and improve better synergy between the corporation and the debt recovery agents for effective debt recovery.

“This is supposed to provide better synergy with the debt recovery agent.

“We see them as partners in this deposit guarantee, and as we work along, we intend to educate them more and improve on the system,” he said.

Some of the agents called for the need to include Bank Verification Number (BVN) as one of the requirements in loan issuance.

Dr Abdullahi Tahir, an NDIC agent, called on banks and regulatory bodies to introduce the inclusion of BVN as a requirement for loan issuance.

Tahir said that the move would help the NDIC in prompt and effective debt recovery.

“What these debtors usually do is to have lots of companies, and in law, a company is different from the person.

“If my company takes a loan, if they are going after that loan, they are going after my company and not me as a person.

“They now extend it to have several companies such that once they take a loan with a company, and that company is compromised, they just move on to the next one,” he said.

According to him, once your BVN is on company A, it will definitely be in company Z.

“If you are able to use the BVN to tie him down, even if company ABC takes a loan, you can freeze company XYZ and that will put pressure on the debtor to pay his debts,” he said.

Mr Augustine Ukauzo, another NDIC agent with Consecrated Law Firm, said that the failure of some defunct bank officials to do due diligence in granting loans was making recovery difficult for the agents.

Ukauzo said that some defunct bank officials issued loans based on partnerships, relationships or familiarity hence, no documented evidences on how to trace and recover the loans.

According to him, most defunct bank officials also issue loans based on familiarity without the company owning a commiserate collateral to match the loan.

He said that poor record keeping also hampered their work.

“Bank officials can connive and give a loan of N100 million to someone (company) for a business without the person or company owning a commiserate asset of that N100 million.

“There are also some scenarios where bank officials will give loans without a concrete documentation on how to locate the debtor.

“If the bank officials do what they are supposed to do, banks will not fail,” he said.

He said that the seminar would help the debt recovery agents to know some of the new areas and improvements in the NDIC Act of 2023.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the seminar is with theme “Operationalising the Provisions of NDIC Act 2023 for Effective Debt Recovery’’.

It was organised for NDIC Debt Recovery Agents in the Northern part of the country. (NAN)

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