The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) says its ongoing collaboration with the judiciary is crucial for achieving financial system stability and boosting confidence among depositors and investors in Nigeria.

Mrs Emily Osuji, Acting Managing Director, NDIC, said this at the 2025 Sensitisation Seminar for National Industrial Court Judges and Members of the Investment and Securities Tribunal in Lagos.

The seminar was jointly organised by the NDIC and the National Judicial Institute (NJI).

Osuji said that the seminar aimed at collaborating, enlightening, and building the capacity of Judges of the National Industrial Court and Members of the Investment and Securities Tribunal.

She added that the legal experts are critical stakeholders in the adjudication of matters relating to failed banks for the purpose of ensuring financial system stability.

She said the theme, “Strengthening Adjudication and Depositor Confidence in the Banking System,” was apt to address current challenges.

Osuji also explained how collaboration with the judiciary was reducing legal bottlenecks causing delays in adjudicating NDIC cases, thereby creating financial stability and boosting depositors’ and investors’ confidence.

“Lawyers and the entire judiciary are very critical stakeholders. In the four mandates of NDIC, lawyers play a very critical role,” she said.

She said that the partnership, which began in 2012, is to help the judiciary understand NDIC’s role for them to be able to make informed decisions in adjudicating cases.

“So, we partner with the judiciary and create more awareness in the financial system. By doing that, we are strengthening the stability and the confidence that people have in the financial sector in Nigeria,” she said.

She also explained the role of the industrial courts in adjudicating on issues of salaries and severance packages in cases of staff of failed banks.

She added that the NDIC, guided by its Act, ensures depositors are a priority, but others, including staff, creditors, and shareholders, also get paid based on available funds and assets.

She reeled out the corporation’s achievements in its 37 years of existence and successes recorded as a result of collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Mr Ahmed Raji, a senior lawyer, who discussed a paper delivered by Abubakar Mahmoud, another senior lawyer, also highlighted the benefits of collaboration for investors’ confidence.

Raji, also the Founder/Principal at Ahmed Raji & Co, spoke on the paper titled, “The Investments and Securities Tribunal’s Jurisdiction and Depositors Protection: Challenges and Opportunities.”

He explained efforts of the Tribunal’s laws which look into all complaints relating to investments to determine cases either for or against depositors.

“One of the areas of consensus is the need to fast-track and to make sure that investment disputes do not linger.

“Otherwise, it will discourage investors, and it will make, especially foreign investors, not to see this one as a good destination to come and invest,” he said.

Justice Salisu Abdullahi, Administrator, National Judicial Institute (NJI), also highlighted the importance of the collaboration and NJI’s role in capacity building for efficiency of the judiciary.

Abdullahi stressed the need to keep up with the ever-evolving banking landscape to deal with challenges introduced by fintechs and digital currencies for financial systems stability and depositors’ confidence.

Mr Amos Azi, Chairman, Investments and Securities Tribunal, explained the role of the tribunal as a specialised court set up to resolve all capital market disputes within 90 days of commencement of hearing.

He also noted that the Tribunal’s role as one of the confidence-building infrastructures in the Nigerian capital market is to encourage investments