Magu pledges support to AMCON on asset recovery

Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday, pledged the commission’s support to Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), in its drive to recover toxic assets and boost for the nation’s economy.

The EFCC boss made the pledge while playing host to Ahmed Kuru, Managing Director, AMCON and his team in his office.

Magu during the visit, blamed the incidence of bad loans especially in the banking sector on insider dealings, adding that it is about time bankers are held liable for their indiscretion.

He expressed the Commission’s willingness to strengthen the team already working on AMCON related cases.

Kuru in his remarks, informed the Commission of how over N3.7trillion of depositors funds, 15,000 jobs were saved due to AMCON intervention in the banking sector in 2009/2010.

“The Corporation borrowed money from the Financial system and bought 13,000 non-performing loans at the cost of N3.7trillion from 22 banks and also injected N2.3 trillion as financial accommodation to ten banks in order to bring stability and avoid systematic failure”, he said.

He however listed some of the challenges hampering the corporation’s debt recovery efforts to include the judicial process, non-cooperation of debtors, concealment of assets, irregular documentation by banks and other financial institutions, forgery and alteration of financial records.

He further expressed satisfaction with the performance of the EFCC/ AMCON desk, saying; “ever since the setup of the AMCON desk, we have enjoyed tremendous support of the team which has led to recovery and increased the number of obligors coming forward to AMCON looking for a resolution out of the situation they are in”.

He added that the importance of the EFCC to the actualization of AMCON mandate cannot be overstated as the Commission is “about one of the few organizations that have the power to request or demand information from some of these financial institutions and get response.”

 

SEYI ANJORIN, Abuja