By Abiola Olawale
The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has vowed to recover the debt of N3.6 trillion owed by 350 debtors.
Following the revelation made by the corporation, the total amount owed the corporation is N4.4 trillion. This amount is bigger than the entire capital expenditure budget of the Federal Government of Nigeria for the year 2021. The capital expenditure budget of Nigeria for 2021 is N3.85 trillion.
This was revealed in a paper presented by Joshua Ikioda, the group head of AMCON enforcement, during a two-day training for the Federal High Court legal assistants and court registrars in Abuja. The revelations contained in the paper said 350 obligors alone account for N3.6 trillion out of the entire N4.4 trillion debt.
While speaking on the matter, Ahmed Kuru, the Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of AMCON, said the corporation is facing challenges on recovering the debts from the obligors.
“We are just a government recovery agency saddled with the responsibility of purchasing Non-performing Loans(NPL) from banks and ensuring it is paid back using the instrumentality of the law. Unfortunately, it did not turn out to be that easy, through the instrumentality of the courts as we encountered a lot of challenges. The obligors get wiser by the day, deliberately causing orchestrated legal delays knowing that AMCON has a sunset date”, Kuru said.
He also added that the corporation will not relent in recovering the debts within legal framework. “AMCON’s mandate is therefore to recover these debts for our common survival to be guaranteed. The rationale behind the AMCON regime is to quickly recover the bad debts within a legal framework that ensures speed without compromising fair hearing”, the CEO said.
It would be recalled that AMCON is a body established by the Act of National Assembly of Nigeria in July 2010. The aim of the corporation is to represent the Nigerian Government in acquiring Non-performing Loans(NPL).
