Heritage Bank To refund Saraki’s Liquidated Societe Generale customers’ fund
By Busolami Idowu
Managing Director, Heritage Bank, Mr. Ifie Sekibo, says the bank will return 100 per cent deposit to former customers of the defunct Societe Generale Bank who can show proof of deposit.
Societie General Bank transformed to Heritage Bank after it retrieved its license from the government 10 years after withdrawal.
Sekibo said this during a courtesy visit by the bank’s management to the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, in Lagos House, Ikeja.
The managing director added that the bank would in addition pay 10 year interest on the deposit to compensate for the years that SGB had left the banking 
scene.
The MD told the governor that Heritage Bank, which is an offshoot of SGBN, was the only financial institution to bounce back after going under for ten years.
He said, “We have an arrangement with Central Bank of Nigeria that all those who are able to prove that their money is tied in that bank will be paid 100 per cent with interest for 10 years.”
Sekibo said the bank would also adopt a school, under the Lagos State Government’s Adopt a School Programme, adding that the school would be branded and upgraded to acceptable standard.
He described the bank as an art-friendly bank, saying the management had signed an agreement with the Nigerian Tourism Development Company and the Lagos Business School to showcase Nigerian arts to the world.
Fashola commended the management of the bank for the plan to pay depositors of trapped funds in SGB.
He urged the bank to look at the mortgage sector as well as the small and medium scale business as areas of interest.
While thanking the bank for thinking about partnership with Lagos, he emphasised that the state put in place capacity to respond to emergency irrespective of who is to benefit.
He said, “As for the school; the school you adopt could produce the next CEO of your bank. The support for preservation of historical sites is a welcome development, but NTDC’s role is limited to traffic in tourism. A Supreme Court judgement has made it very clear that only the states have a role to play in tourism.”