New Telegraph

AMCON: Conflicting court orders frustrating debt recovery process

The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has said that the slow pace of court processes in the country is hindering its debt recovery processes. AMCON Managing Director/ CEO, Mr. Ahmed Kuru, stated this at this year’s edition of the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency retreat with the Management of the corporation and other  instakeholders which ended in Lagos yesterday.

 

Kuru, who was represented by Group Head, Asset Management Directorate at AMCON, Mr Matthew Coker, told the lawmakers that despite the Special Powers as provided by the Act, the corporation is still struggling with its implementation.

 

He, however, said despite the challenges it is facing, AMCON has recovered about N1.4 trillion, which  comprises, cash N681 billion; Property Forfeiture N279 billion; Share Forfeiture N140 billion; and other strategic assets N208 billion.

 

According to him, a total cash of over N116.9bn has been recovered on Polaris bank Eligible Bank Assets (EBAs) from date of acquisition to date.

 

He said: “The Corporation’s recovery processes at this point majorly depend on the judiciary i.e., Obtaining Possessory Orders or Orders for sale. “The slow pace of our court processes and sometimes conflicting orders by the Courts, especially at the Federal High Court (FHC), which is our Court of first instance frustrates recovery process. There are delays in obtaining dates in the Court to hear AMCON matters.

 

“Deposit of judgement sum as provided for in the act is not enforced by the    courts, some of the obligors are still active contractors of the government. “They carry out businesses with government with debtor company names or other pseudo names and the BOFIA Act that provided for a Special Tribunal on recovery and enforcements would have hastened the adjudication of our matters in Court if the Judiciary had constituted a task force specifically in that regard.”

 

In his remarks at the retreat, the Committee’s Chairman, Victor Nwokolo, said the National Assembly would as a matter of urgency summon the leadership of the various key committees that are overseeing the different agencies of the federal government to investigate why the Inter-agency Committee on the recovery of the huge outstanding debt owed AMCON are not working as directed by the Presidency.

 

In September 2019, Vice President Yomi Osinbajo, had inaugurated an Interagency Committee to speedily resolve the challenges in recovering over N5 trillion AMCON debts

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