AMCON: Delivering Impressive Financial Performance amid Challenges

Oluchi Chibuzor

The Nigerian economy is in dire straits with major economic indicators looking grim amidst increasing vulnerabilities. This has seen the government take various measures to stimulate economic activities and improve livelihoods.

However, despite the challenging macroeconomic conditions coupled with economic headwinds, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) achieved a remarkable triple-digit growth of 202 per cent from N34.730 billion in the previous year to N108.433 billion in 2023.

AMCON was established on the 19th July 2010, when the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria signed the AMCON Act into Law. The Corporation was created to be a key stabilising and revitalising tool aimed at reviving the financial system by efficiently resolving the non-performing loan assets of the banks in the Nigerian economy.

Its objectives include assisting financial institutions to efficiently dispose of eligible bank assets; efficiently manage and dispose of eligible bank assets acquired by the Corporation and obtain the best achievable financial returns on eligible bank assets or other assets acquired by it.

According to a statement by the Head Corporate Communications Department of the debt recovery agency of the federal government, Mr. Jude Nwauzor, a breakdown of the performance showed that AMCON, which is currently led by Mr Gbenga Alade as Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer achieved a Year-on-Year (YoY) growth in profit of 212 per cent, from N34.730 billion in the financial year, which ended on December 31, 2022, to N108.433 billion in the period ended December 31, 2023.

The report disclosed that fair valuation gains on Eligible Bank Assets (EBAs) increased to N40.9 billion in 2023, from a loss of N187.9 billion in 2022. Equity portfolio recorded 82 per cent growth in 2023 amounting to N43 billion, compared with N7.9 billion in 2022. The significant trading gains was as result of an improved performance in the stock market.

Interestingly, the Corporation achieved a favourable reduction in total liabilities, from N6.282 trillion in 2022 to N5.739 trillion in 2023, primarily due to repayments of the N500 billion Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) loan. The Corporation also achieved 89 per cent achievement of its revenue budget in 2023 as the total recovery in 2023 stood at N125.2 billion.

A breakdown of the recovery showed that AMCON achieved N81.65 billion in collections from various obligors; N17.8 billion from share sales; N15.5 billion reinvestment income; N6 billion as proceed from sale of properties; N3.8 billion dividend income and N0.5 billion from rental income despite the country’s challenging economic environment, occasioned by the removal of subsidy and floatation of the naira.

The executive management of the Corporation led by Alade said AMCON was strategically positioned to continue with the positive trajectory achieved in the year 2023, with special emphasis on improved recoveries and efficient realisation of value from disposal of forfeited assets in furtherance of the Corporation’s mandate.

Alade is expected to sustain the trajectory considering his background as a turnaround expert and a thoroughbred professional.

Until his appointment on February 22, 2024, by President Bola Tinubu, Alade served as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Guaranty Trust Bank (UK) Limited – a position he held for the past six years prior to the announcement.

He arrived AMCON as a thorough-bred banking professional with over three decades of experience and expertise in Corporate Banking, and Commercial Lending, Management and Business Re-structuring, Investment Banking, Turnaround Management, Product Development and Marketing, Portfolio Management, Enterprise Risk Management and Risk Modelling, Regulatory Compliance, Project/Programme Management, Process Re-engineering, Business Development and Competitive Strategy, amongst other competences.

He also distinguished himself as an astute leader and manager of human and material resources when he also served as Managing Director/CEO of Guaranty Trust Bank, Sierra Leone Limited from January 2014 – December 2017, where he managed the Bank to become the number one bank in Sierra Leone in profitability and efficiency in service delivery for four years. In the process he won the Best Bank Award in Sierra Leone for 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. He was also voted the Banker’s CEO of the year award in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Alade holds a First Class Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Lagos (UNILAG), and Master’s of Science in Finance from the same institution. He is a Fellow/Honorary Senior member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN). He also holds professional qualifications in Project Management (Prince2 & PMP), and a Certified Enterprise Risk Management Professional (CERMP) from Canada.

With over 35 years of banking experience, he arrived AMCON as a strategic thinker with great leadership skills with a track record of business turnaround and management for stability and profitability. He has worked with various financial institutions in Nigeria and other countries including Assetmix Incorporated, Ontario, Canada; Intercontinental Bank Plc, Lagos; Bank of Montreal, Toronto, ON; Societe Generale Bank; Citizens International Bank Limited and the Citibank Group.

He has over the years attended several trainings locally and internationally including Competitive Strategy programme of INSEAD Business School Singapore; Certification in Enterprise Risk Management, Canada; Prince2Project Management Practitioner of United Kingdom; Operational Risk Management & Audit-Euromoney Training, Winsdor, United Kingdom; Managing Successful Projects by AMP Group, Buckingham, United Kingdom; Executive Team Building by Symlog Consulting Group, San Diego, United States of America as well as International Corporate Finance, the New York Institute of Finance, USA amongst others.

“Today, the Corporation has ensured our depositors do not lose their hard-earned savings or their investors, their investments. Socially, the idea has saved thousands of jobs that would have otherwise been lost in the financial meltdown that affected the banks.

“The institution may have some shortcomings, no doubt, but that is expected of any new idea being experimented. But as AMCON grows in experience, such shortcomings are being addressed with perfect hands of a master craftsman.

“Before the advent of AMCON, accountability in the banking sector, particularly during the crisis, was something else. At one time, the collapse of banks became crooked ways of self-enrichment by the management cadre because there was no regime of accountability, while the system of oversight was weak and the framework for the regulation of their operations was equally weak,” Bashir Ibrahim Hassan, a financial analyst, had written.

It is expected that the Corporation would sustain the momentum in the coming years.