We will Recover N700bn from Heritage Bank Debtors – NDIC
The Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation(NDIC) on Wednesday said the over N700 billion loan owed by debtors of the now liquidated Heritage Bank will be recovered.
The NDIC Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Bello Hassan disclosed this in Abuja while briefing newsmen on the way forward after the Liquidation of Heritage Bank on Monday.
Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had on Monday revoked the operating license of Heritage Bank Plc as part of efforts to bring sanity and stability in the banking system.
The CBN had revoked the license of the bank and asked NDIC to commence process of liquidation.
This action was taken under the powers granted by Section 12 of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020.
The NDIC boss also assured depositors of the Bank that they should not panic as the Corporation would commence payment of their money within the next one week and not 30 days as stipulated by law.
He said, “Preliminary findings show that depositors fund was about N650 billion while the Bank loans was around N700 billion.”
Hassan further disclosed that “Among the 2.3 million depositors of the Bank, 99 per cent have deposits below N5million which is within the threshold which the NDIC insures for bank depositors.”
Speaking on the move, the NDIC Boss said that based on preliminary assessment of the books of the bank, the amount of depositors fund is about N650bn.
The NDIC boss assured customers of the bank that if the N700bn loan is recovered, it would effectively cover the N650bn that customers have deposited with the bank.
He said, “From our preliminary assessment, we have found out that Heritage Bank has N650bn deposits and loans is about N700bn and if we recover this amount, no depositor will lose their deposit.
“We assure depositors that there is no need to panic and that they will get their money back.”
The NDIC has been appointed as the liquidator of Heritage Bank. Customers with insured deposits will be paid up to the insured limit of N5m. There had been fears that customers of amounts exceeding the insured limit may be at risk.
Hassan disclosed that there are 2.3 million depositors of Heritage Bank, of which about 99.9 per cent of that figure have less than N5m as deposits, adding that only about 4,000 depositors have about N5m and above in the bank.
