The Senate has considered a bill seeking to empower the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) in the aspect of assets recovery.
The bills is also aimed to strengthen the agency against economic sabotage by debtors with unpaid loans to the tune of about N16 trillion naira.
The AMCON amendment bill 2021, which scaled second reading on the floor on Tuesday was sponsored by Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central).
Bamidele said: “the main aim of this amendment is to update a few clauses in the Act that have been hampering the Operations of the AMCON.”
“Under the current Act, the continued smooth operation of AMCON is threatened by the tenor put on a key funding provision for AMCON.”
“Therefore, the proposed amendment is designed to allow for more flexibility in the tenor of this key funding provision.”
Contributing to the debate, Senator Uba Sani (APC, Kaduna Central) emphasized that, AMCON largely depend on the resources from the resolution fund, and failure to extend this amendment bill will certainly affect the operation of AMCON and forced the government to bear the entire cost of debt management of AMCON.
On his part, Senator Adamu Aliero (APC, Kebbi Central), said the amendment would give teeth to AMCON to recover all debts that were given to private individuals and also companies.
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, referred the bill after it scaled second reading to the Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Chaired by Senator Uba Sani, for further legislative work.
