Omodele Adigun

The Managing Director/CEO of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Mr. Ahmed Lawan Kuru , has made a clarion call to his compatriots that the over N5trillion bad debts, which Nigerians expect AMCON to fully recover before its sunset,  should be seen as a collective problem that concerns all Nigerians, irrespective of their socio-political, ethnic and cultural ideologies.

 Kuru, who was represented by the Executive Director, Assets, Dr. Eberechukwu Uneze, made the declaration when he received a group of cadets from the Accounting Department of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA).

 According to him, the attitude of typical AMCON recalcitrant debtors is a reflection of the nonchalant attitude of the populace,  adding that such negative disposition was responsible for the rascality that was experienced in the banking sector, which led to the creation of AMCON in 2010.

He cautioned those who hitherto thought that the challenge of recovering the huge debt wass AMCON’s headache alone to have re-think because “the monies in question belong Nigerian taxpayers.”

He, therefore, called on organisations and establishments, including the security agencies, to support AMCON in its drive because failure to recover the huge debt would mean that the government would somehow, someday pay back with taxpayers’ money, which would have been used to provide or improve the much needed infrastructure across the country.

 Insisting that AMCON has remarkably done well against all odds since its establishment, he stated , however, that the corporation is not resting on its oars to ensure that these debtors pay what they owe the nation. He disclosed that it was the zeal to make debtors pay that pushed AMCON into changing its recovery strategy from negotiation to enforcement.

Aside recovering over N1trillion, he said: “Our intervention in the banking sector protected thousands of jobs. Along the line, we have also created thousands of direct and indirect jobs. The creation of the Asset Management Partners (AMPs) scheme for instance employed close to 9,000 direct and indirect jobs as well.

 “With the AMP scheme, AMCON is laying solid foundation for the stability of the financial sector because we are gradually and systemically grooming professionals that will take over the job of AMCON at sunset. Our thinking is that at the end of this assignment as mandated by the law, we would have trained highly experienced and professional agents with the requisite capacity and knowhow to continue to function as asset managers in the country. This is because AMCON was not established to stay forever because that will encourage bad behaviour in banks. It also has a moral hazard, which is not good for our economy and the country,” he concluded.

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 AMPs are firms engaged by AMCON in 2016 to complement its recovery efforts as part of its renewed strategy to resolve 6,000 accounts within its portfolio of accounts.

Last May, Kuru, threw his support behind them in their effort to recover the 20 per cent or N740billion of the N3.7trillion total Eligible Bank Assets (EBAs) in the hands of the debtors.

 The AMCON boss, who was represented by Mr. Aliyu Kalgo, the Group Head of Enforcements, said the Corporation placed equal importance on the ability of the partners to recover the outsourced accounts because their efforts count towards the achievement of AMCON’s core mandate, just as he urged the AMPs to discharge their assignments within the defined rules of engagement as stipulated by the AMCON Act and as seasoned professionals.

 His words:  “It is a well-known fact that AMCON has a unique and limited mandate; therefore, AMCON must maximize every opportunity to state its cases with the highest quality of representation, which was why we came up with the AMP programme that have been of tremendous development in our efforts to recover debts owed the country by a few individuals who have over the years remained recalcitrant. We are very grateful for all the AMPs who work with us towards achieving our recovery mandate.

We are mindful of the enormous responsibility placed on you in this regard”.

 On the plans to ensure that AMPs experience a hitch-free recovery processes, Kuru, who argued that these debt when recovered would go a long way to boost the economy , added,

“We will continue to emphasise the need for more diligence even as we continue to partner with you. In the future, we will enlist AMPs who have made significant recoveries as part of the facilitators for similar events so that they will share some insights and critical success factors with us as well as their colleagues. If the recovery process was easy and straight forward, we would not have engaged you in the first instance. We therefore recognise the fact that it is a challenging assignment and that is why we selected you. We promise to be with you all through the hardship and together we shall succeed.”

 Also addressing the participants, a legal practitioner, Mr. Chuka Agbu urged the AMPs to explore and apply the special powers as provided by the AMCON Act in their pursuit of these recalcitrant debtors of the corporation.

The legal luminary further advised the AMPs to leverage the major provisions of the AMCON Act such as bankruptcy, receivership, asset tracing , among others, in their quest to track down the obligors and eventually compel them to repay their obligations.