Senate Amends AMCON Act, Empowers Agency To Take Over Debtors’ Assets

The Senate has extended the powers of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to enable it recover monies from bank debtors.

It has also empowered the agency to go after bank debtors and take over assets other than those used as collateral to recover their debts.

These new measures formed part of the amendments to the AMCON bill passed by the Senate during Wednesday’s plenary at the upper chamber of the National Assembly in Abuja.

They also give AMCON the power to approach credit tribunals to recover their funds, eliminating the bottlenecks often encountered in normal courts.

The special tribunal was established by the Banking and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA), 2020 to deal with financial-related matters.

The AMCON amendment bill was read for the third time and passed after the lawmakers considered and approve the Report of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, and other Financial Institutions.

Senator Uba Sani had moved that the Senate should receive and consider the report after which he laid and presented it to his colleagues at the plenary presided by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan.

Similarly, the lawmakers adopted the recommendation of the Senate Committee on Finance on the 2021 Budget of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

This followed the move by Senator Solomon Adeola that the Senate should receive and consider the report of the committee.

In his contribution, Senator Barau Jibrin commended the Committee on Finance chaired by Senator Adeola for doing a good job.

“The FIRS is doing very well because of the budget performance. This is a wonderful achievement,” the lawmaker said.

Earlier, six new bills were introduced and read for the first time on the floor of the Red Chamber, the National Blood Service Commission (Establishment) Bill, and the Chartered Institute of Directors of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill by the Senate Leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi.

Others are Real Estate (Regulations and Development) Bill by Senator Aliyu Wamakko, Trade Malpractices (Miscellaneous offences) Act Cap T12 LFN 2004 (Amendment) Bill by Senator Jibrin, Motor Vehicle (Third Party Insurance) Act Cap M23 LFN 2004 (Establishment) Bill by Senator Sani, and Federal Universities of Technology Act Cap F23 LFN 2004 (Amendment) Bill by Senator Lola Ashiru.