Banks Non-performing Loans Hit N1.79tn In 2018
The total amount of non-performing loans of Nigerian banks for the year 2018 hit N1.79tn.
Figures obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria on Wednesday revealed that N13.56tn was recorded as loans after specific provisions.
According to the data, which was validated by the National Bureau of Statistics, the gross loans as of the end of 2018 stood at N15.35tn.
As of the end of 2017, the data revealed that the gross loans in the banking sector were N15.96tn.
It further revealed that N2.36tn of the 2017 figure were non-performing loans, while N14.12tn were loans after specific provisions.
Recently, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, Mr Ahmed Kuru, pledged the full support of AMCON to its Asset Management Partners in the pursuit to recover N740bn of the total eligible bank assets of AMCON portfolio in the hands of debtors.
The AMPs are firms AMCON engaged in 2016 to complement its recovery efforts as part of its renewed strategy to resolve some 6,000 accounts among accounts in its portfolio.
The AMCON boss said the corporation placed equal importance on the ability of the partners to recover the outsourced accounts because their efforts counted towards the achievement of AMCON’s core mandate.
He added that the APMs had to discharge their duties within the defined rules of engagement as stipulated by the AMCON Act and as seasoned professionals.
Kuru said, “It is a well-known fact that AMCON has a unique and limited mandate; therefore, AMCON must maximise every opportunity to state its cases with the highest quality of representation, which was why we came up with the AMP programme that has been of tremendous development in our efforts to recover debts owed the country by a few individuals who have over the years remained recalcitrant,” he said.
AMCON is saddled with the statutory responsibility, among others, of recovering the non-performing loans hitherto disbursed by eligible financial institutions (banks) to their customers.
The corporation had said that despite numerous overtures and appeals to its debtors to extinguish their indebtedness, it was concerned that certain debtors had willfully maintained recalcitrant postures while also adopting unscrupulous means of avoiding recovery.
After several appeals and dialogues to resolve the indebtedness, AMCON stated that it would not relent in pursuing vehemently the achievement of its recovery mandate against erring debtors.
