Reps to Present Proposed AMCON Amendment Bill Next Week – Committee Chairman

The draft of the proposed amendment to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) Amendment Bill will be presented before the House of Representatives in the next two weeks, chairman of House Committee on Banking & Currency, Jones Onyereri, stated in Abuja on Tuesday.

The bill is seeking to strengthen AMCON to go after its chronic obligors.

Mr Onyereri was speaking when he led members of his committee to the Head Office of AMCON in Maitama, Abuja on a routine oversight function.

He said the committee owes Nigerians and the country’s constitution a duty to visit critical institutions such as AMCON to review their budget performance within the financial year.

The chairman said the House was ready to support AMCON recover the huge debts in the hands of a few recalcitrant obligors.

The meeting with the lawmakers followed a 2018 budget performance presentation by the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of AMCON, Ahmed Kuru.

In his presentation, Mr Kuru told the lawmakers how the corporation would aide recovery in the next financial year.

“Mr Chairman, as I speak, in the next one or two weeks, we will submit the AMCON Amendment Bill to the House of Representatives for the third reading,” Mr Onyereri said.

“After that it would be moved to the Senate for final deliberation. The committee has worked tirelessly to ensure when the Bill is passed, AMCON will be further empowered to deliver on their mandate.

AMCON, he added, remains an interventionist institution of the Federal Government under the purview of the House Committee’s oversight function.

He said if AMCON was to deliver on its mandate by recovering the over N5.4trillion outstanding debt, the Corporation would need the support of all other government agencies to succeed.

The Chairman said the lawmakers have reviewed AMCON’s 2018 budget performance, particularly what was approved for them.

He said the committee was satisfied with the performance, which would also help the committee make projections and provide guidance as the case may be against their 2019 budget.