Managing Director of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim has described the Award given to him by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) as an honour bestowed on the over 100 professional accountants who currently work in the Corporation.

ICAN Abuja District honoured Ibrahim and five other individuals for outstanding service in their different fields of endeavours. The Awards were presented during the District’s 2013 Merit Award held in Abuja.

The other awardees included Mr Jonah Ogunniyi Otunla, Accountant General of the Federation; Mr Samuel Tyonongo Ukura, Auditor General of the Federation; Dr Mrs Ngozi Olejeme, Chairman Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund; Dr Phillip Salawu, Former Deputy Governor Kogi State and Mr Tunde Ahmed Abdukareem former Accountant General Kwara State.

Chairman of the ICAN Abuja District, Shehu Usman Aladire, speaking during the presentation said that this year’s award was for Chief Executive Officers of organisations and worthy individuals who have shown exceptional character and managerial prowess at ensuring successes and growth in the various spheres of the Nigerian economy.

Aladire emphasised that the choice of awardees was not an exercise done by mere rule of the thumb as the selection process took into consideration a lot of factors such as individual achievements, exemplary leadership qualities, among others.

Commenting on the award, the NDIC MD said “This award is in recognition of NDIC’s contribution to deposit insurance. It is also in recognition of the fact that we have always encouraged professionalism at NDIC. We have close to 100 or more professional accountants employed at NDIC. ICAN Abuja District found it fit to honour herself and by extension the NDIC in recognition of our effort to professionalise deposit insurance in Nigeria.”

Particularly, Ibrahim was honoured for boosting confidence in the banking sector through the novel introduction of bridge banking in the Nigerian banking sector as well as the increase of the insurance sums for depositors twice under his watch (first from N50,000 to N200,000 per depositor for Deposit Money Banks and N100,000 per depositor for Microfinance Banks and Primary Mortgage Institutions and later both sums were increased to N500,000 and N200,000 respectively).