NDIC boosts ABU students’ morale on DIS course with cash prizes

Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has presented prize awards to three deserving students of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, for their outstanding performance in “Fundamentals of Deposit Insurance” course recently introduced into the school.

The three best students, who scored 75 percent, 70 percent and 67 percent in the 300 level first semester examination on Fundamentals of Deposit Insurance course were presented with the NDIC’s prize awards of N200,000, N150,000 and N100,000, respectively.

However, the Faculty decided not to disburse the whole amount specified in the cash awards. Instead, it purchased laptops and relevant textbooks for the awardees. This, according to the Faculty, is to sustain the memory of the award for a very long time. The Faculty also decided to present a consolation prize (of an undisclosed amount) to the fourth best student who scored 66 percent, given the narrow margin of the examination scores between the third and the fourth best students with 67 percent and 66 percent, respectively.

Speaking at the presentation ceremony, Umaru Ibrahim, NDIC’s managing director/chief executive, said the Corporation instituted the prize awards to encourage academic excellence and also to boost the morale of students who offer the newly introduced DIS courses in their degree programmes.

Represented by Jacob Ade Afolabi, director of research, policy and international relations, the managing director disclosed that the Corporation had partnered seven selected universities to introduce two deposit insurance courses: “Fundamentals of Deposit Insurance” and “Practice of Deposit Insurance” into relevant degree programmes as a pilot scheme. The objectives of the DIS courses, he said, included enhancement of undergraduates’ knowledge in deposit insurance and NDIC’s role in the banking system, adding that the initiative would go a long way to enhance the quality of potential bankers as well as to promote financial literacy among undergraduates.

The NDIC boss representative however urged the university authorities to extend the DIS courses to other allied disciplines, including Accountancy, Economics, Banking and Finance, Marketing and Actuarial Sciences degree programmes.

In his address, the representative of the ABU vice chancellor, who is also the Dean, Post Graduate Studies, Kabiru Bala, expressed the vice chancellor’s profound appreciation to the NDIC for introducing the DIS courses and cash awards

The Dean of the Faculty of Administration and also head of Business Administration Department, Bello Sabo, commended the NDIC for the DIS programmes and cash awards, saying the university was entering into similar partnership with National Pension Commission (PENCOM) and other federal agencies.