The imbalance in the Nigerian financial system has been brought to the fore with 2,512,531 depositors, or six per cent of those who placed their money in the Deposit Money Banks in 2010 having N9.53tn or 88 per cent of the total N10.84tn bank deposits during the year.The remaining 41,926,817 or 94 per cent bank customers deposited a paltry N1.311tn or 12 per cent of the total deposits with the 24 DMBs within the period under review.However, each of the high net worth depositors would have got only N500,000 from the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation if their banks had collapsed during the period because that was the total amount for which the NDIC partially insured their deposits.Those who deposited between N1 and N500,000 would, however, have received their full deposits if their banks had gone under.What this means is that the heavy depositors would have lost N8.274tn if the banks had been liquidated during the year under review as their individual N500,000 entitlement would have added up to only N1.256tn.However, they might have got varying amounts back as the law states that individuals who deposited beyond the stipulated insured sum should be paid dividends from the funds generated after the sales of the fixed and risk assets of the liquidated banks.Information sourced from the NDIC indicated that the total number of depositors in the 24 banks grew by 11 per cent from 30,331,614 in 2008 to 44,439,348 in 2010, with 41,926,817 fully covered by the NDIC.The N500,000 maximum deposit that an individual depositor is entitled to has, however, been a source of concern to bank customers, with many of them expressing apprehension as to what will be their fate should their banks go under.Despite the disparity in the volume of funds deposited and the classes of depositors, the Head, Communication and Public Affairs, NDIC, Mr. Hadi Birchi, explained that the focus of the corporation in insuring funds in the banks was to protect a greater percentage of people who placed their money in the banks.He noted that though the total insured amount of N1.311tn could not be compared to the N9.53tn that was partially insured, the NDIC was poised to protect the interest of the larger depositors in accordance with global standards.The focal point in deposit insurance is to protect many savers. The moneybags or those normally referred to as the big customers of banks, usually have the wherewithal to employ the services of financial advisers, who tell them, go to this bank, dont go to the other; invest here, dont invest there; or put your money in this bank, or dont put it there, Birchi said.He explained that from the corporations findings, most bank customers deposited well below the N500,000 mark.He said, In fact, the first time we started, we were paying N50,000. And how do we arrive at N50,000' We arrived at this sum by doing a survey and we discovered that at the time we started in 1989, most of the depositors; more than 80 per cent of the depositors at that time, had from N1 to about N50,000, and that was how we came about the new figure.And for those with deposits that are more than the limit, what we do is that after selling the physical and risk assets, we pay them in form of dividends, just like the payment of dividends on shares. What this means is that those with large sums in failed banks stand the chance of getting more when the dividends are shared.
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