Mr. Yakubu Dogara, Speaker, House of Representatives

BY FRANCIS EZEM

The House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency has said will in the next one or two weeks pass the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria AMCON Amendment Bill and possibly transmit same to the Senate, the upper legislative chamber for further legislative actions, , barring any last-minute change in the scheme of things.

The bill is seeking to further increase the corporation’s enforcement powers to enable it go after its chronic obligors with a huge debt burden of over N5billion. Recall that AMCON had penultimate week published names of some of these chronic debtors.

Chairman of the committee, Jones Chukwudi Onyereri, who made this disclosure, Tuesday in Abuja when he led other members of the committee on a routine oversight function at the corporate head office in Maitama, said that the House of Representatives has concluded plans for the passage of the bill.

According to him, the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency owe it a duty to Nigerians as mandated by the constitution of the country to visit some of the critical institutions such as AMCON to review their budget performance within the financial year.

The committee, which was briefed on the 2018 budget performance of the corporation by its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer Mr. Ahmed Kuru, reaffirmed the commitment of the House of Representatives to support AMCON recover the huge outstanding debt in the hands of a few recalcitrant obligors.

“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.

“AMCON remains an interventionist institution of the Federal Government, which falls under the purview of this House Committee’s oversight function. If AMCON is to deliver on its mandate of recovering the over N5.4trillion outstanding debt, the corporation will therefore need the support and association of all other government agencies to succeed.

“We have thoroughly reviewed the 2018 budget performance of the corporation vis-à-vis what was approved for them. 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 said.

Meanwhile, the MD, Mr. Kuru in his remark described the oversight visit by the committee as a good feedback mechanism, which has over the years afforded AMCON 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 AMCON.

He therefore assured the lawmakers that the current management of AMCON under his leadership will continually remain prudent just as it would continue to persevere in the face of adversity posed by the difficult socio-political and economic realities in the country.