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The Senate on Wednesday approved the 10-member board for the
newly established Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), including
two women, four men, and four statutory members who would be non-executive
directors by virtue of their office.

The board members include Aliyu Belgore, the chairman, and
Mustapha Chike Obi, the managing director /CEO. Hewet Benson, Abbas Jega, and
Dosunmu Benedicta are the three executive directors, and Eniye Ambakaderemur,
is a non-executive director.

The permanent secretary, federal ministry of finance, and the
deputy governor, financial system stability, of the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN), are also non-executive members of the board. The other statutory
non-executive members of the board are the director general of Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC), and the managing director of Nigeria Deposit
Insurance Corporation (NDIC).

During his screening, Mr. Chike Obi, the managing director/CEO
of the corporation, promised to stick to the three cardinal objectives of the
company. He said the three objectives are to acquire the toxic loans, manage
them, and dispose the acquired assets at a profit. He pledged that under his
management, AMCON will not stray into other challenging areas in the banking
system.

“Any other problem in the banks should be the Central Bank of
Nigeria and Ministry of Finance,” Mr. Chike Obi said.

Mr. Chike Obi is a former Goldman Sachs investment banker and
son of renowned Nigerian mathematician, Chike Edozien Umuezei Obi.

Federal character

The confirmation, however, did not pass without the usual
clamour for geopolitical zoning and complaints of imbalance in the ethnicity of
the board members. The northern senators complained that there were two board
members from the south west while the north east had no representation.

The Senate president, David Mark, however, advised the
complaining senators not to sacrifice quality and merit on the altar of zoning.
He added that if the Senate committee that screened the board members and the
executive found them competent, there was no need stressing the federal
character issue, so long as it is the only zone that was not represented.

The corporation is a brainchild of the current governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Lamido Sanusi, and its head office will be
located in Lagos. The corporation has a capital of N20 billion, a 100% increase
in the initial capital base intended by the promoters of the corporation.

The capital is shared in equity by the CBN and the Ministry
Finance Incorporated (MOFI). It is expected that after AMCON take over the bad
loans, the banks which made provisions for more than $16 billion dollars in
loan losses at the end of the third quarter of last year, will be able to
resume lending again.