The total debt profile of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may spike to hit N7 trillion in the next five year.
According to Ahmed Kuru, managing director and chief executive officer of the corporation said at the weekend in Abuja that AMCON currently owes the apex bank N4 trillion.
Speaking at a two-day Annual Seminar for Justices of the Courts of Appeal which started on Friday, he warned that the debt could spike by as much as 75 per cent to N7 trillion by 2024, at the current rate of inflation.
He stressed this is the reason for dire need of collaboration among sister agencies of the federal government to ensure that economic saboteurs do not succeed in crippling the nation’s banking sector.
Kuru reminded participants at the event jointly organised by the National Judicial Institute (NJI) and Legal Academy (LA) and attended by AMCON management, that recovery of humongous debt that is weighing down the Nigerian economy was why the corporation was established.
He however appreciated the nation’s judiciary for sustaining the AMCON Task Force in the four divisions of the Court of Appeal to ensure a fast track of AMCON appeals, stressing that no one can over flog the important role of judges in National Development.
Welcoming participants, Justice Bozimo listed expectations of the judiciary to enable AMCON execute its mandate, which cannot be overemphasised.
“It is through these interactions that the judiciary will be sensitised on the complex role AMCON plays at ensuring the sustenance of the financial system stability in Nigeria. The level of financial stability currently enjoyed in the country is solely attributable to the role played by AMCON in offloading toxic portfolios from the balance sheets of banks thus enabling the banks to perform their intermediating role in the macro-economy.”
According to her, given the peculiarities, uniqueness and the unconventional nature of the AMCON regime, it is evident that AMCON is bound to confront challenges and difficulties in its daily efforts to realise its mandate.
It was in order to assuage these challenges, she continued, that the NJI ensures that the judiciary, especially judges are sensitised and provided with updates related to the AMCON regime at all times.
According to her, “AMCON intervention in the economy at the time it was set up by the Federal Government ensured the integrity of banks and saved their employees from sudden and untimely disengagement. In other words, with the establishment of AMCON, Nigerian banks were saved from imminent collapse and their employees secured from retrenchment.”
Speaking at the event, President of Nigeria’s Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, and administrator of the National Judicial Institute (NJI), Justice Rosaline Bosimo (Rtd), urged the nation’s judiciary to quickly dispense cases involving AMCON and its recalcitrant obligors.
They maintained justice must be dispensed within the ambit of the law, given the negative effects on the national resources.
