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President Goodluck Jonathan will today constitute a board for the Asset Management Commission of Nigeria (AMCON).

He disclosed this at the weekend while receiving a report of the World Bank research on the state of the Nigerian economy.

An elated Mr.
Jonathan while receiving the report assured the Bank and other key
players in the financial sector that the board of the Asset Management
Commission of Nigeria (AMCON) will be constituted as provided for by
the Act which he has signed.

The president
recently signed the AMCON bill which he said is meant to stimulate the
recovery of Nigeria’s financial system from recent crisis by boosting
the liquidity of troubled banks through buying their non-performing
loans, helping in the recapitalization of banks in which the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was forced to intervene and increasing access to
restructuring/refinancing opportunities for borrowers.

According to the
President, the initial delay was caused by the need to conduct due
diligence on some of the nominees in view of the importance of AMCON in
the resolution of the challenges facing the financial sector.

In the World Bank
report, which was presented at a presidential meeting with stake
holders, the global apex financial institution certified Nigeria as a
non credit crunch economy.

Isma’il Rodwan of
the World Bank Nigeria Country Mission, told Mr Jonathan that the
research conducted by the bank on the Nigerian financial sector showed
that “contrary to perception in certain quarters, there is no evidence
of credit crunch in the Nigerian economy”.

Mr Jonathan said
even though some of the outcomes of the reforms are painful, “we have a
better opportunity to put the economy, real sector, financial and
capital markets on a structurally sounder footing through a well
coordinated reforms”.

Also present at the
meeting were the Ministers of Finance, National Planning, Shamsudeen
Usman, Petroleum Resources, Deziani Allison-Madueke and Governor of the
CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi represented by Kingsley Moghalu.

Others were the
Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission and
representatives of other players in the financial sector as well as
selected members of the Organized Private Sector (OPS) and captains of
industries.

In his
contribution, the Managing Director of First Bank of Nigeria, Bisi
Onasanya, commended the CBN for its reforms saying they were necessary
and have the effect of repositioning the banking system.

The repositioning,
according to him, has serve as an effective intermediary to the real
sector, adding that the banks had learnt their lessons.

He added that
“agric business must be made profitable in order for banks to lend to
them and that the businesses need to be de-risked”.

The CBN
intervention funds for the Nigerian Small and Medium Enterprises
(SMEs), Power/Aviation; Agric etc were commended by the World Bank and
other participants at the dialogue.

However, the World
Bank said the 80 per cent risk guarantee given by the CBN for the
funding of SMEs was “too generous” and recommended a 50-50 split of
risk sharing between the CBN and commercial banks.

The President of
the National Association of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (NASME),
Godwin Abugu, in his presentation to the President commended the CBN
credit guarantee scheme to the SMEs.