By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has started the payment of N46.6 billion in liquidation dividends to depositors of the defunct Heritage Bank months after a series of delays, a development that has created excitement among customers.

In a statement on Sunday, the Acting Head of Communication and Public Affairs at the corporation, Mrs Hawwau Gambo, noted that the funds were from sales of the bank’s assets and recovery of debts owed.

Mrs Gambo explained that a liquidation dividend is paid to depositors of a closed bank, beyond the maximum insured limit, using proceeds from asset sales and debt recovery, adding that it may also cover payments to creditors and shareholders once all depositors have been fully reimbursed.

The NDIC began payment of the first tranche of liquidation dividends on April 25.

According to Mrs Gambo, the initial dividend is paid at 9.2 kobo per Naira on a pro-rata basis to depositors with balances above N5 million, noting that further payments would be made as more assets of the defunct bank are realised and outstanding debts recovered.

Following the revocation of Heritage Bank’s licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on June 3, 2024, NDIC immediately reimbursed insured deposits up to N5 million.

To ensure a seamless process, NDIC used depositors’ Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) to locate alternate accounts and automatically credit the insured amounts.

The corporation also used existing records from insured payments to disburse the first tranche of liquidation dividends.

“Depositors with balances exceeding N5 million who did not receive their liquidation dividends should visit the nearest NDIC office.

“Depositors without alternative bank accounts, who were not paid the insured amount, should also visit NDIC offices or download forms from www.ndic.gov.ng.

“Depositors must complete and submit a deposit verification form to receive their insured amounts and, where applicable, the first tranche of dividends,” Mrs Gambo said, reiterating the agency’s commitment to ensuring the recovery of assets and the reimbursement of all eligible depositors.

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Yemi Cardoso, says removing identified bottlenecks is helping the country in terms of foreign exchange inflows.

He disclosed this at a meeting of the Nigerian government delegation led by the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun and international investors on the sidelines of the ongoing Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington D.C.

The central banker assured the global investment community that the apex bank will strengthen its processes to sustain gains from recent reforms and confidence in the economy.

Mr Cardoso stated that the “difficult reforms that have been undertaken have begun to bear fruit,” adding that  “the numbers speak for themselves”, indicating positive developments in the Nigerian economy.

He highlighted the significant progress made in the remittance space noting that initial scepticism was overcome.

He said monthly remittances increasing from approximately “$200 million plus  on a monthly basis to a peak of around $600 million by August [2024]”.

He said this was achieved by “understanding where the bottlenecks were and we  did everything to remove them” and by closing the gap on different exchange rates.

Mr Cardoso also explained that engaging with the diaspora community through roadshows also yielded positive responses.

“The CBN has also involved the banking system in these efforts, including targeted outreach to non-resident Nigerians,” he said.

Governor Cardoso stressed the importance of a competitive Naira, describing this as a game changer and a great transformative tool that has shifted how foreign direct investors view Nigeria, noting that investors are increasingly comfortable with the availability of a competitive currency, making business more attractive.

Speaking on the global economy and how developments in the oil market affects Nigeria, an exporter of crude oil, Mr Cardoso reassured that the impact of oil price fluctuations is “quite manageable”.

He also promised that the country will continue on bettering policies that attract investments into core sectors.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed in its latest data that the total currency in circulation in March 2025 stood at N5.00 trillion, of which about N4.6 trillion is outside the banking system, indicating that 91.9 per cent of all cash in the economy are not in the bank.

Business Post reports that in the same period of last year, the value of cash held outside the banks was N3.63 trillion from the N3.87 trillion in circulation.

Nigerians have continued to keep cash outside the banking system because of the harrowing experience of December 2022 and early 2023 due to the Naira redesigned policy of the CBN.

The policy caused cash crunch, triggering a series of violent protests across the country. It was believed that the central bank, under the then governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, was to frustrate the president ambition of President Bola Tinubu.

The apex bank had said in a bid to help the government tackle insecurity in Nigeria, it was changing the outlook if the N200, N500, and N1,000 bank notes.

The idea was to phase out the old notes but this was frustrated as the state governors challenged this and got a judgement from the Supreme Court against the policy. Both the old and new bank notes are currently in use.

In the same report, the central bank also disclosed that the broad money supply in Nigeria increased by 24 per cent on a year-to-year basis to N114.2 trillion in March 2025 from the N92.19 trillion in March 2024, and on a month-on-month basis, it went up by 3.2 per cent from N110.71 trillion in February 2025.

The hike in money supply occurred despite the central bank raising the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) to 50 per cent at its last Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, with the benchmark interest rate at 27.50 per cent.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) last Tuesday revealed that inflation rate for March 2025 surged to 24.23 per cent from 23.18 per cent in February 2025.

Back to the money supply hike, it was mainly influenced by a sharp 38.9 per cent rise in net foreign assets to N45.17 trillion, while the net domestic assets went down by 11.7 per cent to N69.05 trillion due to tighter liquidity within the domestic financial system.