…Over 700,000 Heritage Bank depositors paid
By Cynthia Alo
The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC, has said that it commenced payment of depositors of the 46 microfinance banks whose operating licences were revoked by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, in July.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NDIC, Mr. Thompson Sunday, disclosed this on Wednesday during an interview with journalists at the 2026 stakeholders’ retreat for members of the House of Representatives Committee on Insurance and Actuarial Matters in Lagos.
The retreat was held under the theme, “Strengthening Financial Safety Nets in an Era of Banking Sector Recapitalisation and Fintech Innovation.”
Recall that last month, CBN revoked the operating licences of 46 microfinance banks following their failure to meet regulatory requirements.
The affected banks were found to have inadequate assets to meet their liabilities, ceased operations without regulatory approval, stopped financial intermediation, failed to commence operations within 12 months of obtaining their licences or failed to maintain the required minimum capital base unimpaired by losses.
Speaking on the development, Sunday said NDIC, which was appointed provisional liquidator following the revocation, had started paying guaranteed deposits to affected customers.
He said: “The CBN revoked the licenses, and we became appointed as the provisional liquidator. We have started paying depositors of those banks, and gradually, we intend to cover all the insured depositors.
“Our function as liquidator would involve payment of guaranteed sums. Thereafter, what we do is we go after those who are owing the institutions and have not paid.
“We also make sure that we sell the assets that are available and also realise their investment towards paying the uninsured portion of the deposit.”
Sunday explained that NDIC was now working with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, NIBSS, to identify alternative accounts linked to depositors’ Bank Verification Numbers, BVNs, and make payments automatically.
He said: “Hitherto, we used to depend on people to come file for payment, but now, in collaboration with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, what we do is, for every account that has a BVN, we trace your alternative account in other institutions and make payments to you automatically.
“So, the more we discover those, the more we start payment.”
The NDIC boss said the same process had been used in the payment of verified depositors of the defunct Heritage Bank, adding that about 700,000 depositors had so far been reimbursed.
He said insured deposits were paid in less than four days after the bank’s failure, while liquidation dividends were subsequently declared for depositors with balances above the insured limit.
Sunday said some Heritage Bank depositors who could not be traced through available databases still needed to come forward with evidence of account ownership and other relevant documents for verification.
He said: “For the guaranteed sum, we do not need you to come to be paid. Of course, there are challenges in the Nigerian system.
“There are depositors that we have not been able to trace, and this is an opportunity for them to also come forward.”
He added that more than 98 per cent of depositors, representing over 281 million accounts across insured institutions, were fully covered by the NDIC deposit insurance scheme.
Sunday also disclosed that following the revocation of the licences of Aso Savings and Union Homes Savings and Loans banks, insured depositors were paid within 72 hours, compared with the statutory 30-day requirement and the seven-day international benchmark.
He said NDIC was pursuing recovery of debts owed to the failed institutions and selling their assets to raise funds for depositors whose balances exceed the insured amount.
“Again, the uninsured portion, I’ll still tell you, we need to go after those who have borrowed from those institutions and refused to pay, and also we need to sell the assets.
“So, if you look at our website, sometimes on the pages of newspapers, even through electronic media, we advertise properties for sale. It is all towards making sure that we get money to pay the uninsured portions of the deposit,” he said.
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