Buhari signs AMCON amendment bill into law

08 Aug 2019
Financial Nigeria

Summary

The new AMCON Act amends the 2010 establishment Act by increasing the powers of the Corporation to recover debts owed to legacy banks.

Ahmed Kuru, Managing Director/CEO, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria

President Muhammadu Buhari has assented to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) (Amendment) Act, 2019, which was passed by the 8th National Assembly in May. He also signed two other bills into law. The bills are the Defence Intelligence Agency Civilian Pensions Board (Establishment) Act, 2019, and the National Biosafety Management Agency (Amendment) Act, 2019.

According to a statement released by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Ita Solomon Enang, on Wednesday, the three Acts have come into effect as laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The new AMCON Act amends the 2010 establishment Act by increasing the powers of the Corporation to recover debts owed to legacy banks. Enang said: “In particular, it empowers AMCON to place any bank account or any other account comparable to a bank account of a debtor of an eligible financial institution under surveillance; obtain access to any computer system component, electronic or mechanical device of any debtor with a view to establishing the location of funds belonging to the debtor; and obtain information in respect of any private account together with all bank financial and commercial records of any debtor of any eligible financial institution.”

He added that the protection of customer confidentiality by banks can no longer be grounds for the denial of the powers of the Corporation as contained in Section 2 of the 2019 AMCON Amendment Act.

Under the new law, AMCON is under obligation to “…furnish the Federal Government, Ministries, Departments and Agencies with a list of recalcitrant debtors and then impose an obligation to seek clearance on the Federal Government, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, when the Federal Government, any Ministry, Department or Agency proposes to contract with, or pay, debtors on the list furnished by the Corporation.”

The Amendment Act, according to the statement, also speaks to the dissolution of AMCON, which was established in 2010 with an expected lifespan of 10 years. Upon dissolution of the Corporation, “all unresolved eligible bank assets then held by the Corporation shall be transferred by the liquidator or joint liquidator to such government agency, or for valuable consideration, to a third-party asset management company or other entity specified by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); all then-existing staff shall be re-deployed to and absorbed into the CBN or the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation.”

The Defence Intelligence Agency Civilian Pensions Board (Establishment) Act, according to the statement, establishes an agency charged with the responsibility of administering a pension scheme for civilian personnel of the Defence Intelligence Agency. It also covers pension on voluntary retirement and benefits if death occurs in the course of duty, as well as a pension in the normal course of retirement.

The National Biosafety Management Agency (Amendment) Act amends the National Biosafety Management Agency Act No. 20, 2015, thereby enlarging the scope of application of the Act by including the emerging aspects of modern biotechnology and biosecurity in Nigeria to prevent any adverse effect to human health and environment.


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