The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency, Hon. Jones Onyereri, on Tuesday promised that the lower Legislative chamber would within the next one or two weeks present the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) Amendment Bill before the Plenary Session of the House for final deliberations.
The amendment bill is seeking to further empower and embolden AMCON with more powers to go after its chronic obligors, amongst other aims.
The lawmaker, who made the declaration when he led other members of the committee on oversight visit to the AMCON head office in Abuja, said that the Committee owed Nigerians the duty to visit critical agencies to review their budget performance within each financial year.
After members of the committee were briefed on AMCON 2018 budget performance by the Managing Director of AMCON, Mr. Ahmed Kuru, the lawmaker promised the corporation’s management of the House support in its sustained efforts to recover the huge outstanding debt owed by obligors.
On the issue of the AMCON Amendment Bill, Onyereri said: “As speak to you now, 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.”
According to him, the committee has worked to ensure that when the Bill is passed, AMCON will be further empowered to deliver on its mandate.
Describing corporation as an interventionist institution of the government, which falls under the purview of the House Committee’s oversight function, Onyereri pointed out that if AMCON is to deliver on its mandate by recovering the over N5.4 trillion outstanding debt, the corporation required the support and association of all other government agencies to succeed.
He said: “We have thoroughly reviewed the 2018 budget performance of the corporation vis-a-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.”
