By Ahmed Ahmed
In an act highlighting a shared mission, the new management of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), led by Mr. Thompson O. Sunday, paid a courtesy visit to the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Olayemi Cardoso.
The recent visit reaffirms their joint commitment to safeguarding Nigeria’s financial system.
Mr. Sunday, who was accompanied by senior directors and top officials to the CBN head office in Abuja, is the newly appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive (MD/CE) of the corporation.
The visit marked the first official engagement between the two institutions since the inauguration of the new management at the NDIC.
Welcoming the delegation, Mr. Cardoso congratulated the new NDIC team and described the meeting as “a clear testament to our willingness to work together.” He noted that in his two years at the helm of the CBN, he had come to appreciate the critical importance of collaboration between regulatory bodies in managing financial risks and ensuring depositor confidence.
“We are navigating uncertain times,” Mr. Cardoso said. “It is imperative that both institutions work in lockstep to anticipate shocks and adopt modern tools that preserve the integrity of our financial system.”
The NDIC Managing Director responded with equal enthusiasm. Commending the CBN for its ongoing reform programmes – particularly the stabilisation of the forex market and recapitalisation efforts – Mr. Sunday pledged full alignment with the CBN’s policy direction. He revealed that NDIC was undergoing a strategic restructuring aimed at realigning its operations with the risk minimisation focus enshrined in the NDIC Act 2023.
According to Mr. Sunday, the corporation’s achievements in recent months have included the payment of over N54.6 billion to nearly 700,000 depositors of the defunct Heritage Bank, and a liquidation dividend payout of 9.2 kobo per naira to uninsured depositors – all within a year of the bank’s closure.
“These are real milestones in our mission to protect depositors and maintain financial stability,” he said, stating that a target funding framework was also in the pipeline.
Despite the progress, Mr. Sunday was quick to highlight operational challenges, including the lack of a unique identifier like the BVN for corporate customers and difficulties collecting premiums from non-CBN banking institutions. He called for deeper collaboration to close these gaps and proposed the development of a joint crisis preparedness framework to enhance industry-wide resilience.
In the CBN response, Mrs. Rita Sike, Director of Financial Policy and Regulation, noted that such a framework could be anchored through the Financial Services Regulation Coordinating Committee (FSRCC). She also disclosed that the apex bank was in the process of upgrading the Credit Risk Management System (CRMS) to integrate the Global Standing Instruction (GSI), enabling the inclusion of Other Financial Institutions (OFIs) in its risk monitoring architecture.
The NDIC delegation also included Executive Director of Operations, Dr. Kabir Katata, as well as senior figures from the Human Resources, Legal, and Communications departments. The CBN team was represented by key officers from policy, communication, and compliance divisions.
As the meeting ended, both sides expressed confidence in their shared path forward. At a time when economic uncertainty demands resilience, the renewed bond between the NDIC and the CBN signals a united front in preserving public trust in Nigeria’s banking system.
