Over 350 Nigerians are responsible for over 80 per of the N5.4 trillion debt profile of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation, Mr Ahmed Kuru has said.
Kuru said the 350 Nigerians or their businesses owe a whopping N4.3 trillion of AMCON’s N5.4 trillion debt profile, a figure that is over 50 per cent of the 2018 national budget.
Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the Corporation’s challenges and drawbacks experienced during recoveries, Kuru expressed concerns that the public currently associates AMCON with only recoveries and taking over of companies.
He noted that there were no complaints when AMCON played its first two roles of intervention and support, adding; “Our responsibility if first to intervene, provide support and then recover: we have done the two, nobody has complained, now that we are doing the third people are complaining.”
According to him, “The people complaining are those people that do not want to meet their obligations. Some of the obligors owe as much as N200 billion.
“We have 350 Nigerians that have obligations or control more than 80 per cent of all AMCONs debt portfolio.
“So if you are talking about N5.4 trillion only 350 Nigerians are supposed to pay more than 80 per cent of that amount, and they are normal people you see on the street.” he said.
Kuru explained that loans recovery was not a pleasant job as most people do not want to repay their debts, insisting that AMCON or Nigeria would not and cannot afford to write off the over N5.4 trillion debt sitting on the balance sheet of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The AMCON boss said the only way to get those evading their paybacks to settle their outstanding obligations was to use the instrumentality of the law, even as he maintained that the nation’s judicial system constitutes one of the major challenges to the Corporation’s smooth operations.
“I can tell you that today our major challenge has to do with the judicial process.
“In other climes, what they do is that they allow AMCON to own the assets ab-initio, which means I have paid for the loans from the commercial banks. I have taken over the loan and I will take it over with the assets so I can sell the assets from day one.
“But here somebody can decide to take you to the court and he has to be heard. He can lock you up with judicial processes and technicalities for 10 years, 15 years or even 20 years.
“If we can have a system where rightly or wrongly we can conclude a case within three months, we can finish our assignments and go.”
Kuru however stated that; “The most fundamental thing is that this money must be recovered whether they like it or not.
“So, it is either they come to us and we negotiate and have a payment plan, or we take over your assets: that is what the law says, it has nothing to do with AMCON.”
He expressed regrets that most times, even when the obligors come and negotiate a payment pattern, they end up not paying at all, adding that AMCON had come to the point where it will resort to direct confiscation of assets rather than wasting time on payment negotiations.
