The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has started on site visits to selected agent banks to ensure prompt payment to depositors of closed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and Microfinance banks (MFBs).

In a statement signed by Hadi Birchi, the Corporation’s spokesman on Tuesday in Abuja, the NDIC said that the visit was to check their level of compliance to the process of payment.

Agent banks are commercial banks that the NDIC uses for the payment of depositors of closed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and Microfinance banks (MFBs).

The NDIC said that the exercise, which kicked off on July 30 by Claims Resolution Department (CRD) of the Corporation, would cover 93 selected branches of the agent banks spread across the country.

“To effectively conduct the exercise, the 93 agent banks branches had been selected on zonal basis,’’ he said.

According to the statement, 27 branches will be visited in the South West, 24 in North Central and 13 in the South South.

Mr. Birchi added that the Corporation would visit 15 branches in the South East, eight in the North East and six in the North West zones.

He said that the objective of the visit was to confirm that payment to depositors is carried out expeditiously and in conformity with the operational guidelines already given to the agent banks by the corporation

Other objectives, he said, include assessing and ensuring that payments of both insured and uninsured deposits remitted to the banks are made to the depositors of the closed banks without hindrance.

“To ensure that the banks properly keep the payment documents forwarded to them by the Corporation such as mandate files, signature cards, Liquidator’s certificates and Deposit Registers.

“To ensure that payment to the depositors are not impeded by the absence of these records; identify and address areas of challenges being faced by the Agent banks that may hinder them from making payment to depositors of the closed banks.

“And to further train the desk officers in charge of payment where the need arises,’’ the commission said.

The Corporation conducted a similar exercise in 2009, which involved 72 selected agent banks branches in the South West, North Central, North East and North West geo-political zones of the country.