AMCON Recovers N1trn Debts as Kuru Hints of ‘Bad Bank’s’ Exit Strategy

James Emejo and Alex Enumah in Abuja

Managing Director/Chief Executive, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Mr. Ahmed Kuru, yesterday said the corporation had recovered over N1 trillion in debts from its debtors.

However, Kuru said debt recovery under the AMCON scheme could not continue forever, adding, “Going forward, we will want to focus on how we close those transactions so that everybody can rest.”

Speaking when he received a delegation from the Business Recovery and Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria (BRIPAN), led by its President, Ayodele Akintunde, the AMCON boss pointed out that the corporation was basically created to buy bad debts as well as resolve them.

He said AMCON was ready and willing to work with all stakeholders to bring an end to loan recovery issues as this would not continue in perpetuity.

He said AMCON had been focused on debt recovery inherited since the 2008/2009 global financial crises and was yet to tackle current issues.

Kuru said, “There must be an end. If there is an account that you have been pursuing in the last 20 years, I think you should be able to draw a line. Going forward, we will want to focus on how we close those transactions so that everybody can rest.”

Nonetheless, he said the agency had also helped thousands of businesses that encountered financial challenges get back on their feet, adding that it is prepared to work with relevant bodies in the country to actualise its mandate.

He noted that while there could be non-performing loans in the banks currently, AMCON had not yet considered purchasing such liabilities but rather was concentrating on the debts inherited over the past decade.

He added, “AMCON has been dealing with the ones they have taken more than 10 years ago…We don’t take and we have not taken new businesses, we are still battling with the ones that were taken during the global financial crisis.

“We have recovered in excess of one trillion, we have helped quite a lot of businesses that are currently running, and we have resolved more than four to five thousand relationships.

 According to him, “AMCON is created to buy non-performing loans, resuscitate the non-performing loans even though some of these non-performing loans have been with these banks for more than 10 years to 15 years before being transferred to AMCON and it has been able to resolve quite a lot of those transactions and in doing that it has recover a lot of funds.”

Earlier, Akintunde said the association was at AMCON to see how it could synergise with the corporation to build capacity in the area of recovery and insolvency. He said although AMCON had achieved some successes, there were still challenges to surmount.

Akintunde said, “AMCON still has challenges and that is why its tenure of 10 years have been extended. Debt recovery in Nigeria is still a work in progress such that law reforms, training and necessary support to ensure that recovery of debts, sale of assets is easily achievable.

“We are expecting increased capacity building because in the new CAMA Act there are new provisions relating to business rescue and as such need for qualified and well-trained professionals to be able to engage in this assignment.”

He said BRIPAN, as a leading trainer of insolvency practitioners in Nigeria, would continue to improve training and capacity so that they could get better results and better outcomes as they tried to resolve insolvency.