Excessive litigation and the lack of understanding of the legal role of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation as liquidator have been identified as the major challenges hampering the effective settlement of depositors.

A statement by the corporation on Friday quoted the Managing Director/Chief Executive, NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, as saying in Abuja that in over 20 years’ of the corporation’s existence, it had made giant strides in protecting depositors’ funds through its statutory mandate of deposit guarantee, bank supervision, failure resolution and liquidation.

He, however, added that the execution of court judgements against the assets of the corporation as liquidator, and the difficulties in recovering debts owed to failed banks were part of the challenges that must be addressed for the NDIC to have a greater impact on depositor protection.

He described this as a crucial step towards tackling the challenges by enhancing the capacity of lawyers to gain a full understanding of the legal issues involved.

Source: Punch (by Ademola Alawiye)