Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives on Tuesday led the campaign for enactment of law for recovery of debts owed by recalcitrant debtors including politically exposed persons (PEPs) and business heavyweights.
Dogara stated this at the opening of the two-day public hearing on the bill which seeks to ‘establish and regulate the Nigerian Assets Management Agency charged with the responsibility of managing all government assets including those seized, forfeited or taken over by federal security bodies and for other matters, expressed concern over the colossal debt owed Nigeria’.
According to him, the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Act, 2011, which seeks to resolve the huge non-performing loan assets of banks operating in Nigeria, provides for 10 year lifespan for the Corporation to operate and wind-down its operation.
The Speaker who frowned at the recurring cases of high NPLs in the banking industry, harped on the need to act fast in order to salvage the economy from future crisis.
“The body has acted as the savior of the Nigerian banking sector by acquiring the non-performing loans of banks. I am informed that the Committee on Banking and Currency influenced the introduction of this Bill as a result of interaction and engagement during oversight visits. This underscores the importance of legislative oversight activities to the legislative process.
“This Bill is seeking to re-energies the AMCON Act by creating a key stabilizing and re-vitalizing tool to efficiently resolve the non-performing loan assets of the banks in the Nigerian economy.
“It is important to emphasis here that the debt Nigeria is being owed is colossal and AMCON is an agency of government set up to collect these debts on her behalf.
“The National Assembly must therefore devise effective Legislative tools for assisting the agency created by it by giving her more powers to compel some of its recalcitrant debtors, especially those that are politically exposed and business heavyweights to repay their debts,” the Speaker who was represented by Chukwuma Onyema, Deputy Minority Leader stressed.
He also stressed the need to curb wastages and introduce cost efficiency in the manner public assets are managed presently in Nigeria.
“I have gone through the functions of the proposed Agency and those that are most critical are maintaining data, statistics, records and reports on proceeds, properties, documents of Federal Government assets and guarding against vandalization or illegal conversion of the Federal Government assets.
“We need to cultivate a culture that seeks to change our mode of doing business as usual, that has led to government spending public funds in renovating these assets before they can be sold, leased, let, donated or transferred to any government body. This bill apparently therefore seeks to find solutions to the age long problem of wastage and lack of accountability,” the Speaker noted.
While speaking, Gberechukwu Uneze, AMCON Executive Director, observed that the provisions of section 2(c) of the NAMA bill clearly shows the class of assets different and distinct from eligible banks within the purview of AMCON.
“The assets in AMCON are of course not that of the Federal Government, and though they are held through seizure, forfeiture, etc, the assets are of different nature acquired through the mechanism of a contractual assignment as between banks and AMCON – a purely commercial transaction.
“The AMCON Act clearly provides that the assets are either held as collaterals or are efficiently managed in such a way that they are used to settle outstanding obligations of Obligors,” he noted.
In his presentation, Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor who urged that the NAMA bill should be consolidated with the Senate’s Proceeds of Crimes Recovery and Management Agency bill or better still drop the NAMA bill.
Emefiele who was represented by Henry Forma, Assistant Director, Legal Department, argued that “the nature of the asset recovery envisaged in this bill is uncertain and unpredictable, being wholly dependent on commission of crimes that may involve recovery of stolen government assets of forfeiture of proceeds of crimes.
“As such, it may not be financially prudent to establish an agency that may at a time be redundant and may simply be expending the scarce resources of the state without any value addition. The establishment of the agency would also add to the already bloated cost of governance in Nigeria,” he observed.
“The fight against corruption has yielded and continues to yield positive results. This is manifested in the massive recoveries of proceeds of corruption and related financial crimes including cash and physical assets, which have been vested in the Federal Government through seizure and forfeiture.
“Critical to the success of the fight against corruption is the support of all stakeholders. Maintaining this support requires that Nigerians are assured that recovered assets will be managed in an open and transparent manner for the good of all,”
On his part, Azubike Anyadurwu, NDIC Head of Litigation
In its submission, Shettima Gana, acting Chairman, Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), who opposed the establishment of the agency, observed that the functions of the agency should be transferred to AMCON or EFCC which has existing structure.
“In view of the recommendation of the presidential committee on reorganization of Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies of 2011 which recommended the merger/scrapping of 102 agencies out of the 263 existing agencies, the establishment of a new agency to be charged with the responsibility of managing all assets, including those seized, forfeited or taken over by federal security bodies such as EFCC, ICPC, Police, Custom, NSCDC among others, would not only increase the cost of governance, but would also duplicate the functions being promoted by an existing government agency, i.e AMCON. This might not be the wisest decision to make in the opinion of the Commission,” he stressed.
In his remarks, Jones Onyereri, chairman, House Committee on Banking & Currency
