The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has intensified efforts to recover an estimated N1.5 trillion owed by debtors to over 50 liquidated deposit money banks (DMBs), 100 primary mortgage banks and microfinance banks.

The corporation disclosed this during a sensitisation seminar for debt recovery agents in Lagos, stressing that timely recovery is critical to reimbursing depositors whose funds remain trapped in liquidated institutions.

Director of the Legal Department, Olufemi Kushimo, described the new act as “a full bouquet of tools” for recovery, noting that the corporation would use every provision, including prosecuting parties responsible for bank failures.

“The NDIC Act 2023 is a full bouquet of tools to help with debt recovery. Not only to recover, but to serve as a deterrence and ensure the banking industry is sanitised,” Kushimo said, adding that criminal prosecution would be pursued where necessary.

He emphasised that uninsured deposits — amounts above the insured limit — depend largely on successful asset recovery. Many affected depositors, he noted, are market traders, POS operators and small business owners whose trapped funds represent critical working capital.

“To encourage people to keep money in the bank, the earlier we pay, the better. Reputation is very important,” Kushimo said.

Director of Asset Management at NDIC, Patricia Okosun, said the seminar was aimed at equipping agents with new tools under the enhanced NDIC Act 2023, which strengthens the corporation’s powers to pursue recalcitrant debtors.

“The objective of the seminar is simple. We have an NDIC Act that has strengthened debt recovery. We are here to let the debt recovery agents know the additional tools they now have,” Okosun said.

She expressed optimism about recovering the debt portfolio despite its scale.

“If we were not optimistic, we wouldn’t be here. We want to recover everything and we will do as much as we can,” she added.

Okosun declined to give a recovery timeline, citing litigation uncertainties.

“Nobody can say because of litigation that you are going to do it in one month or two months. But the earlier we recover, the better, so we can pay our depositors,” she said.