NDIC managing assets, debt recovery for depositors in 600 failed banks –Official

*The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation assures the populace that it is managing assets of almost 600 failed banks while working hard to ensure the depositors are paid their uninsured deposits with the Corporation

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Determined to recover every single loan from beneficiaries, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has assured Nigerians that it is managing assets of almost 600 failed banks while working to ensure that depositors are paid their uninsured deposits.

ConsumerConnect reports Mrs. Patricia Okosun, Director of Asset Management Department at NDIC, said this at a sensitisation seminar for Debt Recovery Agents Thursday, February 26, 2026, in Abuja, FCT.

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Mrs. Okosun said the  Corporation was managing over 560 assets of MicroFinance Banks. (MFBs) and about 32 Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) across the country.

The Director of Asset Management Department at NDIC emphasised the seminar was organised to to sensitise the agents on the powers given to them by the NDIC Act of 2023 in debt recovery of failed banks.

According to her, the NDIC’s target is to ensure that every single loan is recovered for the benefit of affected depositors.

Okosun explained the overarching objective of the forum: “What we are here for is actually the risk assets, that is the loans and advances that were given out when the banks were in operation.

“That is actually what the debt recovery agents seek to recover and that is what we are trying to sensitise them.”

She said: “We want to let them know the powers we have.

“And since they are agents, we are also transferring to them to use, to help recover the risk assets that we have firmed out to them.”

The NDIC Director of Asset Management Department as well stressed the NDIC sought to recover all the loans because they would be used to pay the affected bank depositors.

Speaking at the forum, Olufemi Kushimo, Director, Legal Department of NDIC, also said the seminar was to sensitise, inform, and educate the debt recovery agents on the powers of the NDIC Act 2023.

Push for BVN as key requirement in loan issuance

Toeing the line of Mrs. Okosun on relevant provision of the Act, Kushimo said that the regulatory instrument was a full recovery tool to enhance the Corporation’s debt recovery mechanism to fulfil its mandate of deposit guarantee and payment of uninsured portion of failed bank deposits.

He said that the seminar would help to enhance and improve better synergy between the corporation and the debt recovery agents for effective debt recovery.

Kushimo explained: “This is supposed to provide better synergy with the debt recovery agent.

“We see them as partners in this deposit guarantee, and as we work along, we intend to educate them more and improve on the system.”

Some of the debt recovery agents, at the forum, advocated the need to include Bank Verification Number (BVN) as one of the requirements in loan issuance by commercial banks.

In his remarks, Dr. Abdullahi Tahir, an NDIC agent, urged banks and regulatory bodies to introduce the inclusion of BVN as a requirement for loan issuance.

Tahir also noted that the measure would help the NDIC in prompt and effective debt recovery.

Dr. Tahir said: “What these debtors usually do is to have lots of companies, and in law, a company is different from the person.

“If my company takes a loan, if they are going after that loan, they are going after my company and not me as a person.

“They now extend it to have several companies such that once they take a loan with a company, and that company is compromised, they just move on to the next one.”

Poor record keeping cause of unpaid loans

Mr. Augustine Ukauzo, another NDIC agent with Consecrated Law Firm, said that the failure of some defunct bank officials to do due diligence in granting loans was making recovery difficult for the agents.

Ukauzo said that some defunct bank officials issued loans, based on partnerships, relationships or familiarity.

Hence, no documented evidences on how to trace and recover the issued loans.

Most defunct bank officials also issue loans based on familiarity without the company owning a commiserate collateral to match the collected loans, stated he.

Emphasising poor record keeping as a hindrance, Ukauzo said: “Bank officials can connive and give a loan of N100 million to someone (company) for a business without the person or company owning a commiserate asset of that N100 million.

“There are also some scenarios where bank officials will give loans without a concrete documentation on how to locate the debtor.

“If the bank officials do what they are supposed to do, banks will not fail.”

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