Tobi Soniyi in Abuja
A Presidential Inter-Agency Committee on recovery of loans granted to commercial banks and corporate organizations by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has been set up by the Federal Government.
This was revealed in a statement made available to the media in Monday by Mr Salihu Othman Isah, spokesman of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN.
The committee, which will be led by the minister, was inaugurated on Thursday, 19th May, 2016 in Abuja.
The statement said AMCON was established by the Act of the National Assembly to prevent the collapse of the Nigerian banking sector following the banking crisis as a result of the Bank Consolidation Reforms in 2008.
According to him, the AGF pointed out that the above situation led to huge indebtedness of banks which culminated in the eventual purchase of the toxic loans by AMCON in order to stabilize the banking sector, and by extension the Nigerian economy.
However, the debtors who cut across the aviation, banking and oil and gas sectors failed to repay the loans while some of them had resulted to court actions all in their bid to frustrate the loan recovery efforts of AMCON, surmising that in some cases, this was with active conspiracy of some financial institutions among others.
Malami explained that this resulted to Mr. President’s gracious approval and directive for the establishment of an Inter-Agency Committee by President Muhammadu Buhari to effectively pursue the loan recovery.
Further details later
