The Central Bank [CBN] has assured customers who have deposits in closed microfinance banks that they will be compensated.

Head, Corporate communications of the CBN has assured that customers will be duly compensated "Let me assure Nigerians that no depositor would lose their money in the 224 microfinance banks that were closed down by the Central Bank.

"This is so because of the guarantee of the payment of not more than a N100,000 to each of the depositors as provided by the insurance scheme offered by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC," he said.

"What this means is that every customer of the microfinance banks involved in the current exercise would be paid a maximum of N100, 000.

"For those who have more than N100, 000 deposited in their accounts with these banks, you would recall that these 224 banks have a portfolio of nonperforming loan exposure amounting to about N20 billion and as the Central Bank has said, we are going to assist them to aggressively recover these loans."

He also revealed that some of the microfinance banks have properties and collateral which could be sold in order to meet up with the payment of the customers affected.

"What this means is that at the end of the day, no depositor would lose his/her money as a result of the actions taken by the Central Bank of Nigeria".

The Central Bank confirmed that the industry had been confronted with numerous challenges since the launch of the Microfinance Policy Framework in December, 2005. A significant number of the microfinance banks (MFBs) were deficient in their understanding of the microfinance concept and the methodology for delivery of microfinance services to the target groups.