Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has said that Nigerian banks are operating in the country are healthy and are in line with global standard.
The Deputy Director, Research, NDIC, Hashim Ahmad said this during the disclosure in Minna during a sensitisation of members of the 2015 Batch A, Stream II, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) at the orientation camp, in Paiko, Niger state.
Ahmad said “Nigerian banks are relatively healthy in line with global standard. We don’t normally announce the healthy status of our banks in the public, but we normally say in aggregate and I think our annual report will soon be released and be made available to the public.”
“The annual report normally summarises the health status of the industry. We don’t particularly say Bank A or B is distressed. We are simply saying that on aggregate basis we will tell you the industry is this or that.
“We undertake supervision of the banks as insurer as you know, no insurer will sit back and allow his risk to crystalise before he wakes up. We are embarking on the supervision of banks to ensure they remain safe and sound.”
While responding to enquiries on when the defunct Savannah Bank will return to business, Ahmad said: “We expect the bank to bounce bank soonest because it has been handed over to the owners. At our own end (NDIC), we can only act and exercise our own mandate when a licence is revoked by the CBN.
“As Savannah Bank stands, the licence has been restored by the CBN and there is nothing NDIC can do in terms of paying off depositors, since their licence is back to them. And we can’t go and pay anybody.”