By: Tijani Salako.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Mr Thompson Oludare, has assured depositors of the 46 microfinance banks (MFBs) whose licences were revoked by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that they remain protected under the country’s deposit insurance framework, as the corporation continues to pay the guaranteed portion of their deposits.
Oludare said the NDIC had begun payments to eligible depositors of the 46 MFBs whose licences the CBN revoked on July 1, 2026.
He explained that the payment process was ongoing and that the corporation could not yet provide a final figure for the number of depositors paid, as it continued to identify and process new beneficiaries.
Oludare disclosed this yesterday at a three-day workshop for senior management and executive staff of the NDIC, organised in collaboration with the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).
“As we speak, we have started paying the depositors. That’s the guaranteed portion of their deposits. It’s an ongoing process, and it is difficult to put numbers because even as I speak with you today, new depositors are being paid,” he said.
He explained that the NDIC was leveraging the Bank Verification Number (BVN) system, in collaboration with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), to identify affected depositors and locate their alternative bank accounts for direct payment.
According to him, the approach is designed to make the process seamless and eliminate the need for depositors to appear physically before the corporation for verification.
“All we need to do is identify accounts linked to BVNs and, in collaboration with NIBSS, locate the depositors’ alternative accounts in other banks and pay them seamlessly without their having to come to us for verification,” he said.
The NDIC boss said the exercise was part of the corporation’s mandate to protect depositors and sustain confidence in the financial system, noting that while financial institution failures are undesirable, they can occur.
He said the objective of the deposit insurance system is to ensure customers are not left without protection when such failures happen.
“Our expectation is that we have a country where deposit insurance is pervasive, where people know that their deposits with banks are guaranteed and safe.
“We do not expect institutions to fail, but it is a fact of life. Just as people die, some institutions will fail. But when they do, we want depositors to be sure that they are covered by the NDIC,” he added.
At the workshop, the Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the BPP, Dr Adebowale Adedokun, disclosed that the Federal Government saved N400 billion in the first six to seven months of 2026 through its price intelligence and benchmarking system.
Adedokun said the mechanism also generated N1.1 trillion in savings for the government in 2025.
He explained that the BPP benchmarks procurement requests and project costs submitted by government agencies against prevailing market prices before approval, enabling the bureau to identify excessive pricing and reduce procurement costs.
According to him, the savings represent funds that would otherwise have been spent on inflated procurement costs and can now be redirected to other government priorities.
Adedokun added that the introduction of price intelligence has increased awareness among contractors and government agencies while strengthening technical scrutiny of public procurement.
“The most important thing is the awareness that has been brought into the system. The technical prudence that has been introduced is beginning to give government not only savings, but also ensuring that contractors deliver quality jobs,” he said.
