By Yemisi Izuora- Katsina
The Managing Director and Chief Executive of Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) Alh. Umaru Ibrahim has said that the banking sector is the engine room for economic growth and development through the process of financial intermediation.
This pivotal role he said, has made it imperative for all stakeholders in the sector to continuously strategise with a view to tailoring it towards responding to global developments and the transformation agenda of the present administration.
He made this known at the on going workshop for Business Editors and Finance Correspondents of Nigeria (FICAN) in Katsina.
The MD noted that NDIC as a deposit insurer has been effectively responding to all emerging issues in the global financial system particularly financial literacy, consumer protection, financial inclusion, sustainable banking and extension of deposit insurance coverage to depositors of non-interest banks.
Ibrahim also said that CBN has issued a regulatory framework for Mobile Payment Service in Nigeria in june 2009 as a measure which would help in the reduction of the number of unbanked Nigerians.
According to him, the CBN has also granted licences to 21Mobile Money Operators in Nigeria, comprising 15 non-bank operators and 6 bank operators as at jan 2013.
He further said that NDIC has considered as imperative the extension of deposit insurance to the individual subscriber of the MMOs in the form of pass-through deposit insurance in order to engender confidence of the public in subscribing the products of the MMOs.
The managing director also said that the federal government has equally launched the Nigerian Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC) to encourage and promote home ownership in Nigeria by providing financial facilities to the mortgage lenders.
He also emphasized that 60 per cent of the MSME fund had been earmarked for providing financial empowerment to women, stressing that the fund also prescribed 50:50 ratio for on-lending to micro enterprises and SMEs respectively but only new SMEs would be allowed to be financed by DMBs under the fund and two per cent of the wholesale component of the fund would go to economically active persons with disabilities.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Airtel Nigeria.