AMCON: AMP Scheme, Key To Recovery Of N5trn Debt

31st May 2021

The Managing Director/ CEO of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) , Mr. Ahmed Kuru, has said that Asset Management Partners (AMPs) scheme is critical to the corporation’s efforts to recover over N5trillion from debtors. He stated this at a two day training for the AMPs which held in Lagos, at the weekend. The AMPs scheme, which was launched by AMCON five years ago, currently has about 6,000 Eligible Bank Assets (EBAs) at different stages of resolution and about 3,000 matters at various courts in the country. According to a statement issued by AMCON, of the over N5trillion the corporation is trying to recover from debtors, “only 350 obligors alone account for a whopping N3.6trillion, which is over 82 per cent of the outstanding exposure, which if recovered would be enough for the Federal Government to actualize a good number of projects such as roads, railways, electricity generation and distribution, hospitals, and the like across the country.” Citing the negative effect of the situation on the nation’s economy, the AMCON boss charged the AMPs to scale up their efforts because, according to him, it would not be fair to allow the obligors to escape justice. He said that the training was part of AMCON’s efforts to continue to interact with the AMPs and provide them with the necessary assistance they would require to excel as recovery agents. Kuru, who was represented at the event by Mr. Aliyu Kalgo, stated that since the inception of the AMP scheme, AMCON had achieved significant milestones even though the application of the concept and achievement have not mitigated some key challenges. He said it was for that reason that AMCON would continue to engage with different stakeholders, especially the AMPs to ensure that they understand the AMCON Act as amended. He said: “As we are aware, the AMCON Act was amended by the National Assembly and subsequently assented to by His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019. This amendment further empowered in the corporation special debt recovery powers and other prerogatives to aid its recovery of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) from recalcitrant debtors that are hiding under different tactics to delay repayment of their debt obligation.”