Reps probe AMCON’s N5tn debt

The House of Representatives has raised the alarm over alleged “abuses” in the management of the affairs of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, leaving the corporation with a debt profile of over N5tn.

It noted that the “huge” debt had exceeded the corporation’s approved debt ceiling of N800bn by N4.2tn.

The House said if the situation was not rescued urgently, Nigeria was headed for a scenario in which AMCON would no longer be able to perform its statutory role of strengthening the banking industry in the country.

The implication, according to a resolution passed by lawmakers in Abuja, is that the banking sector in the country may return to the “pre-2010 global economic crises, which AMCON was established to cure.”

The House resolved to investigate the debt profile of AMCON and to examine whether the “acquisition and sale of assets, banks, shares and landed property by AMCON was consistent with due process and extant laws devoid of fraudulent practices, and determine the losses, if any, suffered by Nigeria.”

In a separate resolution, the House also observed that there were abuses in the collection of non-oil revenues by Ministries, Departments and Agencies as most of them did not remit revenue to government.