NDIC Warns Bank Customers to be Careful of Ponzi Schemes

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has warned bank depositors against falling into Ponzi schemes’ traps due to promises of very high returns in.

Mr. Bello Hassan, Managing Director (MD) of the corporation, gave the warning, yesterday,  at the on-going Abuja International Trade Fair, according to a statement by the organisation.

The NDIC MD who was represented by Mr Bashir Nuhu, the Head of Public Affairs, said, “I would also like to serve a word of caution against patronizing unscrupulous services of ponzi schemes and illegal fund managers, otherwise called ‘wonder banks’ who masquerade as deposit taking institutions to dupe unsuspecting members of the public of their hard-earned funds.

“They offer unrealistically high returns to lure their victims only to bolt away with their money. These entities are not licensed by the CBN as deposit taking institutions and are therefore not covered by the deposit insurance.”

He warned that most of the operators of Ponzi schemes were not licensed by theNDIC and as such, investments in the schemes were not protected.

The MD said that the risk of losing their deposits was very high.

He explained that the corporation had since reviewed the insured deposit to as high as N500, 000 for Deposit Money Banks and N200,000 for depositors of Microfinance banks.

The NDIC, he said was participating in the Trade Fair as part of its efforts at public awareness drive.

His words, “We engage in all the major trade fairs across the nation, not to market goods, but to market our services.

“We Inculcate banking habits, financial inclusion and inform the public about the dangers of not taking their money to the bank.

“We have developed an app to enable depositors to fill in their claims when their money is trapped in a bank and apply for their money.”