of its operation, AMCON has not made a headway in recovering these debts. Can it do so before it winds down in 2023? COLLINS NWEZE examines the intricacies of the exercise as billionaire debtors continue to dodge payment.
“As a Credit Officer, I have come to realise that many borrowers have no intention of paying back the loans. Many of them with the ability to payback, lack the willingness to do so. They are always waiting and hoping that one day, the creditor would write off the debt. So, the first thing I look out for when analysing a credit is the borrower’s willingness and ability to repay the loans and only a few customers meet these criteria,” Stephens told The Nation.
AMCON was established on July 19, 2010 when the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria signed the AMCON Act into Law. More revealing is that the national treasury did not fund the exercise. Under the auspices of the Bankers´ Committee, AMCON´s operations are financed by 0.5 per cent of banks´ annual profits through the sinking fund and CBN´s N50 billion funding plans spread over 10 years.
AMCON Managing Director/CEO, Ahmed Kuru, said the corporation had taken strategic steps to ensure more debts are recovered through negotiations and resolutions, using cash recoveries, asset forfeitures and capital restructuring for short to mid-term exits, including deploying Joint Venture arrangements for asset operations and land development.
He said the Act that established AMCON recognised the fact that, if obligors are not in a position to pay, AMCON should at the least have recourse to the collaterals. The Act also recognises that if AMCON is going to have recourse to the collaterals, there must be a process where AMCON must first of all go to court, and get an order to take over the property.
Kuru said the corporation is doing everything within the powers of its mandate and within the powers of the laws of the land to recover the debts. “The people are the same so-called big men and women that are known to all Nigerians- people in politics, top businessmen and women as well as private individuals. The debt is huge and if we do not recover the outstanding, which is about N5.