Beware! Wonder banks are on the prowl again, NDIC warns Nigerians

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance corporation, NDIC, has warned the Nigerian public against falling for the bait of illegal deposit-taking institutions which offer mouth-watering interest rates .
These institutions, popularly known “wonder banks” which indeed are out to defraud unscrupulous members of the society are on the prowl again, the Managing Director, MD, of the corporation, Alh. Umaru Ibrahim, warned.
He spoke at a press briefing to mark its 25th anniversary of the deposit insurer in Abuja, on Thursday.
According to Ibrahim, “The problem of wonder banks are emerging again and the public must be careful about anyone coming to them and promising very high deposit interests which could be at the detriment of the deposit itself.
“If someone comes and promises a very high interest in order to take your money. You should be careful because his real intention might be to run away with your deposit”, he warned.
He also pointed up the fraudulent activities of some operators in MicroFinance Banking sub-sector.
He said that NDIC officials who were detailed to assess their operations could not of the even trace the addresses of some of them, adding, “they just open an office, collect deposits from unsuspecting members of the public for a few months and then they disappear.”
The NDIC chief disclosed that about N9. 581 billion had been paid to insured depositors of failed banks since 1994 to date.
His said,, “A cumulative amount of ¦ 6.825 billion was paid to 528,277 insured depositors of the 48 DMBs in-liquidation as at August 31, 2014. While for the 186 closed MFBs, the cumulative amount of N2.756 billion had been paid to 80,059 verified depositors as at 31st August, 2014”.
He admitted that a major challenge in the efforts to pay insured depositors was their failure to come out and make claims, as expected.
Alh. Ibrahim, therefore urged depositors of failed banks to take advantage of the provisions by the NDIC to collect their deposits.
He said further that corporation was working towards including Mobile Money Operators, MMOs, in its deposit coverage with a view to securing the funds of their subscribers.
“In order to engender confidence of the public in subscribing the products of the MMOs, the NDIC has considered as imperative the extension of deposit insurance to the individual subscribers of the MMOs in the form of pass-through deposit insurance. The framework for making the pass-through insurance scheme operational is currently being finalised by the Corporation”, he said.
The NDIC, Alh. Ibrahim said, had successfully responded to economic realities and yearnings of depositors by periodically increasing the coverage levels in order to enhance the confidence of the public in the Nigerian financial system.
His words, “the maximum deposit insurance coverage was increased from its set level of N50,000 at inception to N200,000 in 2006 and subsequently to N200,000 in 2010 and later to its present level of N500,000 for DMBs. Deposit insurance was extended to Microfinance Banks/Primary Mortgage Banks in 2006 with a coverage level of N100,000, which was increased to N200,000 in 2010”.