The Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) says it is already in the process of paying depositors of Heritage Bank.
Bello Hassan, managing director of NDIC, gave the assurance during a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday.
On June 3, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) revoked the banking licence of Heritage Bank following the bank’s “inability to improve its financial performance”.
On the same day, NDIC said it had taken over Heritage Bank as the appointed liquidator.
Speaking at the briefing, Hassan said payment to the insured depositors is expected to be done by the corporation within 30 days of being appointed liquidator, according to Section 28 of the NDIC Act.
He also promised to settle insured customers within one week, adding that the total bank deposits at Heritage Bank stand at N650 billion while its loan portfolio is above N700 billion.
Hassan said the bank’s total depositors are 2.3 million, with 99 percent of them having total balances of less than N5 million.
“They will get all their money back. Only about 4,000 people had more than N5 million in their accounts. They will get N5 million now and more later when the NDIC gets more money from the bank’s assets and loans.
“We need to move as quickly as possible and we are doing that. I can assure you that all the payments will commence this week for the insured deposits.
“We will leverage the bank verification number (BVN) to identify alternate bank accounts of the depositors to pay the maximum amounts of N5 million. Customers without alternate accounts should visit branches of the bank,” he said.
