The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has increased deposit insurance coverage for all licensed deposit-taking financial institutions.

NDIC disclosed this in a post on its Facebook page on Thursday.

Deposit insurance protects depositors’ funds in the event of a bank failure.

Bello Hassan, NDIC managing director and chief executive officer (CEO), said the deposit insurance coverage for commercial banks was increased from N500,000 to N5 million.

Hassan said the increase provides coverage for 98.98 percent of depositors in Nigeria.

The naira declined to N1,370 against the dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday.

This represents a 1.48 percent depreciation from N1,350 traded on April 29.

Currency traders, also known as bureau de change (BDC) operators, put the buying rate of the greenback at N1,330 and the selling price at N1,370 — leaving a profit margin of N40.

At the official window, the local currency appreciated by 1.98 percent to N1,390 on April 30 — from N1,419.11 on April 29.

During trading, the exchange rate rose as high as N1,450 and as low as N1,200 according to data from FMDQ Exchange, a platform that oversees FX trading in Nigeria.

The naira devaluation has continued to pose significant challenges to firms, cutting deep into profit margins and eroding shareholders’ dividends.

On April 30, Aliko Dangote, chairman of Dangote Industries Limited, said the devaluation of naira created the “biggest mess” for the company in 2023.

“We are doing whatever it takes to make sure that at the end of the day, we will be paying dividends because if you look at our dividends last year, it was almost 50 percent more so we will try and get out of the mess,” Dangote said.

“The biggest mess created was actually the devaluation of the naira from N460 to N1,400.”

He said almost 97 percent of the companies, especially in food and beverages businesses, will not pay dividends this year due to the FX constraints.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has informed the public that the current fuel shortages and the accompanying queues will be resolved by Wednesday.

Olufemi Soneye, Chief Communications Officer at NNPCL, shared this information with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.

He stated that the company has more than 1.5 billion litres of fuel in stock, sufficient to last for at least 30 days.

“Unfortunately, we experienced a three-day disruption in distribution due to logistical issues, which has since been resolved.

“However, as you know, overcoming such disruptions typically requires double the amount of time to return to normal operations.

“Some folks are taking advantage of this situation to maximize profits.

“Thankfully, product scarcity has been minimal lately, but these folks might be exploiting the situation for unwarranted gain.

“The lines will be cleared out between today and tomorrow,” Soneye assured.