AMCON Vows to Recover N5trn Debt with Amended Act

AMCON Vows to Recover N5trn Debt with Amended Act

Having secured the signing of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) (Amendment) Act 2019 into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of AMCON, Mr. Ahmed Kuru has turned attention to sister agencies in a bid to recover the over N5.4trillion outstanding debt in the hands of a few Nigerians.

Aside from collaborating with the likes of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC); Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU); Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as well as Ministry of Justice, Kuru has continued to extend hands of fellowship to the judiciary whom he said must strongly support AMCON to achieve the recovery expectations of the federal government.

The AMCON chief executive who led a delegation of the corporation’s officials on a strategic visit to Nigeria’s Court of Appeal recently, where they met with the President Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa and other Justices of the court, said the new Act had expanded the definition of the obligors of AMCON to include the directors.

This meant that AMCON would more than ever before need the support of the judiciary especially the federal High Court.
Highlighting aspects of the amended Act to the Justices, the AMCON boss was quoted in a statement to have noted that the amendment had further empowered AMCON to the extent that unlike what obtained before, in the case of an appeal against the final judgement, the appellant or obligor must now deposit the judgement sum in an interest-yielding account of the court while in the case of interlocutory appeal, the appellant or obligor will also have to deposit the total sum claimed by AMCON in an interest yielding account of the court.

He said the act also granted permission to place bank account of debtors or the likes under surveillance by ex-parte order of the Federal High Court; access debtors’ computer systems for the purpose of locating debtor’s funds by ex-parte order of the Federal High Court; permits AMCON the right to obtain access to debtors’ banking, financial and commercial information and Bank Verification Number (BVN) from banks by ex-parte order of the Federal High Court as well as impose an obligation on the federal government and Federal Ministries departments and Agencies (MDSs) to seek AMCON clearance before contracting with or making payments to recalcitrant debtors on AMCON debtor list.

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