There are indications that the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, may publish the names of 7,912 debtors as part of its debt recovery strategy.
It was also gathered that AMCON could activate its constitutional powers to take over possession, manage, foreclose or sell, asset/properties linked to these debtors to recover the massive debts.
This development comes after the expiration of a 30-day ultimatum issued by the National Assembly to debtors to regularise their debt status with the bad debt manager.
AMCON CEO/Managing Director, Ahmed Lawan Kuru, in November 2021, submitted a list of its top 1,000 debtors to the National Assembly.
Kuru, during the presentation, put the total current exposure on all eligible bank assets at N4.4trillion, adding that the top 1,000 debtors are responsible for 90 per cent of the total sum, translating to N3.9trillion.
Following the expiration of the 30-day grace today, March 5, 2022, AMCON may be set to publicly publish the names of 7,912 debtors.
The spokesperson for AMCON, Mr Jude Nwauzor, made this known while speaking with the PUNCH.
According to the him, the corporation has decided that all the debtors who were yet to provide a repayment proposal risked having their details published in the media after the 30-day grace period given by the National Assembly.
According to him, out of a total of 12,743 non-performing loans inherited by the agency, only 4, 831 debtors have settled their indebtednesses, leaving a total of 7,912 outstanding debtors.
His words, “AMCON has taken the decision to publish already. The decision has been taken already. It is a directive from the National Assembly. As a responsible corporate citizen, this was why we published an advertorial to warn all the entities concerned that their names will be published at the expiration of the ultimatum. The one month grace period will be expiring on January 5, 2022.
“If you recall that before we went for the Christmas holiday, the National Assembly asked us to publish a list of debtors. However, the management of AMCON felt that to avoid a situation whereby people would say we took them by surprise, there was a need to do an advertorial. That was why we put adverts to warn that after the expiration of the deadline, the names would be published. We bought 12,743 loans, but as of now, about 4,831 have been resolved. The outstanding is now 7,912. These outstanding debtors are owing us N4.4trillion.”
