The National Association of Microfinance Banks (NAMB) has appealed to the CBN to involve its members in the operation of the newly introduced Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

Mathias Omeh, president of the association, told  newsmen in Abuja on Friday that microfinance banks have many toxic assets that AMCON could help by buying.

Reports say that the AMCON Act, which came into effect four days ago, provides the legal backing for the establishment of the long-awaited corporation.  

AMCON, according to the Act, is to stimulate the recovery of the financial system and ultimately the wider economy, through the provision of liquidity to the banks by buying their non-performing loans.

Omeh said that the apex bank should not only be concerned with depositors’ fund, but should also take interest in how investors’ money was also being managed.

He said that it was painful for the shareholders who were mostly retired government workers to lose their hard-earned savings invested in buying shares.

 “The CBN and Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), in the just- concluded health test for the sub-sector, know the banks’ debt portfolios.

“We are pleading with the CBN and Federal Ministry of Finance to involve the microfinance banks in the operations of AMCON.

Kabir  Yar A’dua, the Managing Director of Gobarau Microfinance Bank, told newsmen that AMCON could bail out the microfinance banks by injecting N3 billion to buy the banks’ non-performing loans.

He noted that the government had bailed out other sectors with bigger sums, adding that the  N3 billion bail-out he suggested would go a long way in boosting activities of the microfinance sub-sector