Home News N4.8trn debts to AMCON must be recovered – Senate

N4.8trn debts to AMCON must be recovered – Senate

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Rafiu Ibrahim, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions has urged that the National Assembly to as a matter of urgency empower the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to go after recalcitrant obligors.

Ibrahim, made the plea on Thursday in Lagos when he delivered a keynote address at the opening of a two-day retreat on the importance of AMCON Act Amendment Bill, said the corporation had been up and doing.

He said AMCON had tried its best over the past seven years to resolve those debts, but was still encountering resistance from obligors.

He said that the only way AMCON could meet its mandate of achieving the mandate for which it was set up in 2010.

He said the Senate under, the leadership of Olubukola Saraki, had no option than to urge AMCON to compile and publish the list of all debtors in major daily newspapers in the country.

The move, he said, would place before Nigerians who were holding the nation’s economy to ransom since they account for 80 percent of AMCON’s N4.8trillion obligation.

He said that the Upper Chamber, as part of its oversight function, had decided that AMCON in its lifespan, must be given all the support it required to perform as expected by all Nigerians.

He, however, urged the management of AMCON to collaborate with the other relevant bodies to propose that the President issued an executive order on seizure of assets of persons who were indebted to AMCON.

He said that Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF), office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Central Bank of Nigeria should champion the move for the order.

Ibrahim said the upper chamber planned to have serious discussions with major stakeholders such as the CBN, the FMF, the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and relevant committees from the legislature among others.

This, he said, would allow them to deliberate on issues hindering AMCON from performing optimally which include the funding of its model to enable the recovery agency finish its assignment.

“The Upper Chamber will at this stage bare its fangs by amending the AMCON Act because AMCON has been a key stabilizing and re-vitalizing tool in the Nigerian financial system.

“It will be supported by the legislature to enable the corporation achieve its statutory objectives,” Ibrahim said.