The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, has disclosed the readiness of the Ministry of Finance to assist financially ‘stressed’ Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), to recover some of the debts owed to its debtors.
Ahmed noted that her ministry has decided to help AMCON by issuing promissory notes to the tune of the debts.
She stated: “But currently, AMCON itself is stressed in the sense that the assets it bought are underperforming. The repayments that they are supposed to be able to make are not happening at the rate at which they should happen. And I understand that there had been an effort to amend the AMCON Act to enable it to become stronger in terms of its enforcement.
“We have the opportunity to help AMCON to recover some of the debts in its books.
“We will find out from AMCON what they owe and issue a component of the promissory note so that their debt is settled. That is the method we are adopting to help AMCON because most of the institutions acquired by AMCON are underperforming and putting the agency in a very dire financial situation.”
Ahmed stated this yesterday when she appeared before the House Committee on Finance to defend her ministry’s 2020 budget.
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Ahmed explained that the government has been servicing the $470 million loan obtained from China by the immediate past administration for the installation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). She, however, insisted that the FCT administration is in a better position to explain about the CCTV projects.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, has revealed that the federal government was on the verge of securing the services of medical experts from Europe and America.
He disclosed this yesterday during the 2020 budget defence session before the House Committee on Diaspora Matters.
Ehanire said that the expatriates would not only attend to Nigerians in dire need of medical services but also share their expertise with their Nigerian counterparts.
