The Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has warned Nigerians against patronizing what it called ‘room-and-palour’ or wonder banks which it said defraud customers with promises of turning small monetary deposits into huge amounts effortlessly.

The Managing Director of the corporation, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, who gave the warning in Kano Thursday, expressed concern over the proliferation of such banks in the country, saying the trend was being fueled by ignorance and greed.

“Don’t take your money to room and palour banks that make promises too good to be true. A lot of people have lost billions of naira in the last decade to wonder banks due to ignorance and greed. We are still battling with these dubious banks even though we have made progress keeping them in check,” he said.

Ibrahim who spoke at the launch of the NDIC Stakeholders Town Hall Meeting under the theme: “Bank Customer Protection: The Role of the NDIC”, said the program was introduced to educate the public on financial literacy and inclusion which are critical to economic growth.

The Deputy Director of the NDIC on Bank Examination, Abubakar Muhammed, said the corporation has paid the insured sum of N6.796 billion and uninsured sum of 95.896 billion to 426,331 depositors of 48 closed Deposit Money Banks (DMB) as well as N2.86 billion to 81,417 depositors of closed 187 Micro Finance Banks (MFBs) as at 30 September, 2016.