The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation on Thursday warned depositors against patronising illegal fund operators, popularly called ‘wonder banks’.

The corporation said that the wonder banks offering attractive interest on deposits were not licensed to operate by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The Managing Director, NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, spoke in Kaduna at the 36th Kaduna International Trade Fair, stressing that the corporation would not be responsible for depositors’ missing funds traceable to the wonder banks.

Ibrahim said that wonder bank managers often disappeared after collecting customers’ money, leaving them in pains. He urged Nigerians to stay clear of them.

He said the warning became necessary in view of the report of the continued operation of the outlawed fund operators in different forms and styles in various parts of the country.

He said, “I wish to seize this opportunity to once again advise members of the public against patronising illegal fund managers, also known as ‘wonder banks’ who offer extra-ordinary interest rates on deposits or investments only to disappear after collecting the deposits or investments.

“These illegal operators are not licensed by the CBN as deposit-taking financial institutions; and as such, they are not under the NDIC insurance cover.

“People often approach the corporation to seek redress after failing victim. For the avoidance of doubt, the corporation wishes to make it categorically clear that only depositors of institutions that are licensed to collect deposits by the CBN such as deposit money banks, micro finance banks, primary mortage banks, and non interest/Islamic banks are under the NDIC insurance cover.”

Ibrahim said one of the things contained in the proposed amendments to the NDIC Act 2006 was building of the corporation’s general reserve funds to create a robust deposit insurance fund.

Punch