Debt Recovery: Reps To Speed Up Amending AMCON Bill
The Chairman, House of Reps Committee on Banking and Currency, Sir Jones Onyereri, has said the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria Amendment(AMCON) Bill will be presented before the House in the next one or two weeks.
Onyereri also said AMCON needed support from other government agencies to recover the over N5.4tn debt yet to be paid by obligors.
The bill is seeking to further empower and embolden AMCON with more powers to go after chronic obligors, according to a statement from the corporation on Tuesday.
Onyereri, who led other members of the committee on a routine oversight visit to the corporate head office of AMCON in Maitama, Abuja, stated that the committee owed it a duty to Nigerians as mandated by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to visit some of the critical institutions to review their budget performance within the financial year.
After AMCON 2018 budget performance presentation by the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, AMCON, Mr Ahmed Kuru, the lawmaker was quoted as saying that the House was committed to supporting AMCON to enable it to recover the huge outstanding debt in the hands of a few obligors.
Onyereri said, “I want to assure you that this committee, which I humbly serve as chairman, would in the next one or two weeks submit the AMCON Amendment Bill to the House of Representatives for the third reading, after which it would be moved to the Senate for final deliberation. The committee has worked tirelessly to ensure that when the bill is passed, AMCON will be further empowered to deliver on its mandate.
“If AMCON is to deliver on its mandate by recovering the over N5.4tn outstanding debt, the corporation will, therefore, need the support and association of all other government agencies to succeed.”
He said the committee had thoroughly reviewed the 2018 budget performance of the corporation in relation to what was approved for it.
“The committee is satisfied with the performance, which would also help the committee make projections and also provide guidance as the case may be against their 2019 budget,” Onyereri added.
The AMCON boss, Kuru, described the oversight visit by the committee as a good feedback mechanism, which, he said, had over the years afforded the corporation the opportunity to rub minds with the legislature as well as draw from the wisdom of the lawmakers to efficiently and effectively pilot the affairs of the corporation.
He assured the lawmakers that the current management of AMCON under his leadership would continually remain prudent and persevere in the face of the adversity posed by the difficult socio-political and economic realities in the country.
