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NDIC targets more than 50% reduction of financially excluded population by 2020

By Mathias Okwe, (Abuja)
12 October 2016   |   4:16 am
By the year 2020, the population of financially excluded in Nigeria - that’s those not captured in either banking, insurance, pension and other forms of financial services will be reduced by more than 50 per cent.
 Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim

Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim

• Warns against patronage of wonder bank operators
• Trains over 27,000 corps members on financial literacy

By the year 2020, the population of financially excluded in Nigeria – that’s those not captured in either banking, insurance, pension and other forms of financial services will be reduced by more than 50 per cent.

That’s the target of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) under its financial inclusion and literacy project under the auspices of the Financial System Strategy 2020 (FSS2020), which is collaboration with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other financial service regulatory agencies in the country.

As at 2010, the population of the financially excluded was put at 46.3 per cent. Now, the NDIC target is to force this figure down to 20 per cent, by 2020, representing more than 50 per cent.

And to actualize the vision , the Corporation has since flagged off financial literacy programmes targeted at youths and market women which has resulted
in the training of over 27,000 youth corps members in its bid to ensure the success of financial inclusion campaign on principles of financial literacy.

Managing director of the corporation, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim who revealed the action so far undertaken however warned members of the public to be weary of dubious operators of fund managers ( wonder banks) who lure customers with fake mouth watering high interest on deposits because the promises are not real and secondly because the wonder banks are not insured by the NDIC.

Ibrahim gave the advice yesterday during the NDIC Special Day at the Abuja International Trade Fair and disclosed that with the increase of deposit insured limit to N500,000, 90 percent of all bank depositors were now covered.

He regretted that despite repeated warnings, many unsuspecting and financially naïve members of the public have continued to patronise these dubious fund managers in view of mouthwatering interest rates and unattainable returns they offered their victims.

“Members of the public are therefore, advised to patronise only banking institutions be it DMBs, PMBs, MMOs and MFBs with a display of the NDIC stickers carrying the words: ‘Insured by NDIC’ in their banking halls or entrances and various branches across the country”, he stated.

“Without any doubt, these wonder banks or illegal fund managers are neither licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria nor are they under the NDIC deposit insurance scheme

On financial literacy programme he said : “Efforts are on-going to cover the remaining states on continuous basis for the purpose of enlarging the scope of financial inclusion and financial education towards consumer protection in the country.”

“ In order to reduce the number of financially excluded from 46.3 percent in 2010 to 20 percent in 2020, NDIC has published various books for primary and secondary school pupils including the general public.

“ NDIC also partnered National Universities Commission (NUC) to introduce a pilot scheme of two courses on Deposit Insurance Scheme into the curricula of undergraduate programmes in seven universities.”

Ibrahim also told his audience, which included traditional rulers, professionals and business people that the corporation has progressively increased its maximum deposit insurance limit from N50,000 in 1989 to N200,000 in 2008 and to its current N500.000 per depositor per deposit money bank since 2009 to constantly reflect realities of the economy.

Speaking earlier, President of Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Tony Ejikonye said the choice of the 2016 fair theme “Make It In Nigeria” was made in response to the current realities of the economy.

“Make it in Nigeria is a clarion call to governments at all levels to do the needful to improve the business environment and encourage the operations of the private sector, especially the small and medium enterprises.”

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