By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief
ABUJA—Wealth distribution disparity, the gap between the rich and the poor, in the country has continued to widen as indicated in the 2010 annual report of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC, which showed that a mere six per cent depositors owned a whopping 94 per cent of bank deposits last year.

According to the report obtained in Abuja, weekend, total deposits of the 24 banks amounted to N10.837 trillion, which was 36.74 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, GPD.

The corporation said that 44.439 million depositors owned the N10.837 trillion out of which N1.310 trillion is fully covered under the N500,000 limit.

Those whose deposits in banks were N500,000 and below were 41.926 million (94 per cent).

The remaining bulk of deposit of N9.526 trillion belonged to 2.512 million depositors which represented six per cent.

According to the report: “During the year under review, the number of depositors fully covered at the new level in the 24 deposit money banks was 94 per cent of the total number of depositors (or 42,926,817 depositors). The number of partially covered depositors at the new coverage limit stood at six per cent of the total number of depositors (or 2,512,531 depositors).”

The report put total assets of the banks at N18.66 trillion which stood at 63.26 per cent to the GDP and that about 100 million Nigerians had no bank accounts.

“The total volume of deposits fully covered at N500,000 during the period was N1,310.639 billion while the total deposits partially covered was N9,526.505 billion.”

It indicates that the total loans and leases of the 24 bank as last year stood at N7.166 trillion, while non-performing loans stood at N1.077 trillion.

The banks largely returned profitability in the year under review after the CBN reform previous year, with total industry Profit Before Tax put at N 607.34 billion. The industry recorded a loss of N1.377 trillion in the preceding year.