Stories by Amaka Ifeakandu Lagos
Th e nation’s banks have so far contributed a total of N931 billion to the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) sinking fund since inception Th e Chief Financial Offi cer, AMCON, Olugbenga Ataiyero, who disclosed this while giving breakdown of the Company’s account added that the banks have contributed N136 billion to AMCON sinking fund during the 2016 fi nancial year.
He however, said that the projection was that banks were going to grow at 20 per cent, which never came to pass. “In 2016, we had envisaged that the banks would have contributed about N288 billion, but they actually contributed only N136 billion. “So, that was enough for us to pay down the principal.
What we did was just to service the interest of our loan from the CBN. We pray that the contribution to the sinking fund would improve and then our losses would begin to go down,” he added. Managing Director /chief Executive Offi cer , AMCON Ahmed Kuru at a press conference said that the company recovered N134 billion which comprises of N86.9 billion recoveries from cash collections and N30.64 billion from assets forfeiture.
He said that N7.9 billion was realised from sale of property and N8.7 billion from sale of shares He said that the corporation would continue to engage its obligors to enhance loans recovery, adding that it would welcome customers with strategies for loan repayment within a specifi ed period. He said there are quite a lot of challenges we are facing in terms of debt recovery , adding that the company is not under illusion that it is easy to recover bad loans. Loan recovery is a very unpleasant job.
