By Stellamaries Amuwa

 The Nigerian Insurance Deposit Corporation (NDIC) on Thursday raised the maximum deposit insurance coverage for Deposit Money Banks from N500,000 to N5 million, to enhance depositors’ protection and public confidence.

The Managing Director of NDIC, Mr Hassan Bello who made the announcement during a press conference in Abuja said the move is also in line with the Corporation’s commitment to achieve financial inclusion, and stability of the financial system.

Deposit insurance is the government’s guarantee that an account holder’s money at an insured bank is safe up to a certain amount.

For Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs), he announced an increase of the maximum deposit insurance coverage from N500,000 to N2,000,000, adding this would provide full coverage of 99.34 per cent of the total depositors compared with the current 97.98 per cent.

He added that the move would increase the value of deposits covered by deposit insurance to 21.04 per cent compared with 10.77 per cent of total value of deposit, currently covered.

For Payment Service Banks (PSBs), the NDIC approved an increase of the maximum deposit insurance coverage from N500,000 to N2,000,000 and this would provide full coverage of 99.99 per cent of the total number of depositors.

It would also increase the value of deposits covered by deposit insurance to 43.10 per cent of the total value deposits from the current cover of 40.60 per cent.

For subscribers of Mobile Money Operators, the NDIC approved an increase of the maximum Pass-through deposit insurance coverage from N500,000 to N5,000,000 per subscriber per MMO as the applicable coverage level for depositors of DMBs.