N5.4tn Debt: AMCON To Seize Debtors’ Assets

The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria has said that there will be no more room for negotiation with debtors as it is now set for a new stage of complete asset takeover.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, AMCON, Mr Ahmed Kuru, who stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Sunday, said the N5.4tn debts had lingered for too long.

Kuru said AMCON had got tired of debtors coming to its office and telling lies about wanting to embark on staggered payment, which they ended up never fulfilling.

He stated that most part of the N5.4tn debt had been with the banks for five years before AMCON bought them over, adding that after seven years of its operations, the obligors had yet to pay.

Kuru said, “Resolutions through staggered plans have never worked. Let us not forget that before those loans were transferred to AMCON, they had been with the banks for over five years. Now, AMCON is almost seven years; so, the facilities have been running bad for 12 years. It is not easy to recover those kinds of facilities.

“So now, we have changed our strategy from sitting down and drinking tea and the obligors telling us lies and we pretend that we don’t know you are telling us lies. There is no more time for lies, because we have a sunset period. So, now our focus is on recovery. We do not want to hear anything; you cannot come and tell me you are going to pay me in the next six years, I do not have that time.

“If you cannot pay me the money now then give me my assets, because the assets belong to AMCON, so that we can sell them.”

He added that in the case where the registered assets of a company that was in debt were not enough to clear their obligations, then AMCON would also go after the directors and their private companies.

Kuru said as part of the new strategy of AMCON, directors of companies would now be sought after so that they would be forced to take part in repaying loans obtained by their firms.