AMCON Recovers N1trn From Debtors

The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has recovered over N1 trillion from debtors, its Managing Director, Ahmed Kuru, has announced.

He spoke during a visit by the Leadership of the Business Recovery and Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria (BRIPAN) to him in Abuja. Kuru said the corporation has resolved over 5,000 business relationships.

According to him, “AMCON was created to buy non-performing loans, resuscitate the non-performing loans even though some of these loans had been with the banks for more than 15 years before being transferred to AMCON.

He said AMCON is open to collaborations that would be positively impactful to the economy of the federal republic of Nigeria to which we all owe our allegiance.

He added that in business recovery and insolvency, there are quite a lot of legal hurdles that make the process more difficult because it involves dealing with third parties, dealing with businesses that have failed, and issues that relate to the law, among others.

“So, working with an association such as BRIPAN, people that understand the legal and business side of it is very important to AMCON,” Kuru said.

The BRIPAN pledged to partner the AMCON to advance the tenets of insolvency and business recovery practice in Nigeria.

President of BRIPAN, Ayodele Akintunde said the group recognised AMCON as a leader in the business of insolvency and business recovery in Nigeria since its creation in 2010.

Akintunde said the collaboration has become critical because investors look at the strength of the laws in the countries they are prospecting for investment, especially the laws guiding recovery, insolvency, and security among other factors in the country.

He said the BRIPAN, as a professional body that is made up of members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA); Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), and Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) having been involved in insolvency matters in the last 20 years as well as law reform activities would like to partner with AMCON because of the peculiarities of the AMCON mandate and the positive dividend such collaboration would do for the business environment in the country.

Explaining further, he stated, “BRIPAN is happy with what AMCON is doing since its establishment. BRIPAN is also a member of the International Association of Restructuring, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Professionals (INSOL International) so, we are ready to work with AMCON because we have the capacity and can advance different training programmes.

“We are involved in law reforms and so many other key areas that we believe will help the business environment in the country. Having watched for years, we have observed that AMCON is a leader in insolvency in Nigeria so, we want to collaborate with AMCON in this area because we understand that insolvency and business recovery are key to the economy of any nation. They are the things investors look out for.”