Osinbajo reveals that companies who owe Amcon money will no longer get government business

VICE president Professor Yemi Osinbajo has revealed that institutions and individuals on the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria’s (Amcon’s) debtors’ list will no longer be allowed to do business with the government.

Announcing the new policy over the weekend when he hosted some members of the Amcon board of directors at State House, Abuja, Professor Osinbajo said the debtors made it impossible for the corporation to resolve its outstanding N5trn debts, thereby holding the entire nation to ransom. Under new plans, an inter-agency collaboration framework that comprises ministries, departments and agencies supervised by the office of the vice president, will block the indebted entities from dealing with the government.

Professor Osinbajo, who doubles as the chairman of the National Economic Council, revealed that there are 105 debtors on the Amcon list, including key players in aviation, power, real estate, oil and gas sectors of the economy. Amcon is a government agency which steps in to bail out troubled companies in difficulties so consumers do not feel the effects of their problems.

Since it was floated in 2011, Amcon has managed to recover N1trn in debts and over the same period, its repayment of its indebtedness to the Central Bank of Nigeria has also totalled over N1trn. Of the recovered funds, cash assets account for 60% and non-cash assets, such as properties and equity securities, account for the balance of 40%.

Under the new arrangement, the federal government plans to invite the Amcon team alongside other agency directors to fine-tune how to ensure that anybody or agency that owes its money is blacklisted. Professor Osinbajo said that the federal government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari will no longer allow a few individuals who owe Amcon huge sums of money walk freely on the streets.

Professor Osinbajo said: “I think the time has come for us the federal government to set some examples with some of these top debtors of Amcon, which I believe will set a good example and serve as deterrent to others. I congratulate Amcon for the work done so far having recovered over N1trn and counting, both in cash and in assets.

"The work you do as a recovery agency is not something that is particularly easy or encouraging because we all know how Nigeria works. However, we are committed to working more closely with your administration to ensure that these monies are recovered from Amcon obligors because it will help our economy and provide the government with more money to continue to improve on the development of infrastructure across the nation.”