AMCON: Nigeria to lose N5.5trn bad debts to litigation’s delay

Nigeria is facing the risk of never recovering about N5.5 trillion ($15 billion) of bad loans taken over during a banking crisis more than a decade ago.

The money is almost 80 per cent of the West African nation’s revenue target for 2019 and 62 per cent of planned spending by President Muhammadu Buhari, amounting to N8.9 trillion.

“Delays in litigation are slowing the process, while tepid economic growth is weighing on the ability of businesses to survive,” AMCON Managing Director Ahmed Kuru said this Thursday at the July 2019 Breakfast Meeting of the Nigerian – American Chamber of Commerce (NACC), where he was the guest speaker.

He said some persons behind the huge bad debt presently occupy leadership positions in the country.

But he said the corporation was working with other sister agencies namely; the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) to come up with detailed television documentary on notorious and recalcitrant obligors of AMCON.

The documentary, he said, would document in a permanent format for generations yet unborn to know “the so-called big men and women that are behind the over N5 trillion debt burden, which AMCON is battling to recover.”

The worrisome aspect of the issue, Kuru stated, unlike what happens in other clime was that such obligors still found their way to emerge as members of the National Assembly, ministers, chairmen and women of big organisations and pro-chancellors of universities.

He said: “Sadly, these are the caliber of people we respect in Nigeria but these people are not role models. How can you be a role model when you cannot honour a simple obligation? That is why I have been consistent in the call for the return of the Failed Bank Act.

“The way we are handling the issue in the country suggests that we are encouraging a lot of financial rascality. People have to be held accountable for their actions, which I believe would serve as deterrent to others.

“All economies all over the world depend on the financial infrastructure for growth. If we allow or encourage the destruction of the basis of our financial structure, then the economy would not grow. These are men and women who go to banks to borrow monies with no intention to pay and in the process bring down banking institutions. It takes a lot for a bank to fail. AMCON just rescued Skye Bank with an investment of nearly N1 trillion. In a decent society, those who are responsible are supposed to be held accountable.

“We are talking about recovering over N5 trillion debt, which sits with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and we know that the federal government through the CBN cannot afford to write the debt off so we just have to recover. With such huge recovery, the country can do a lot in the areas of infrastructure development in energy; rail line, health, road construction and a whole lot more. To enable you to understand the magnitude of what we are talking about, only 350 individuals account for 80 per cent of the debt amounting to N4.6trillion.”

He also told the gathering why it was difficult for the agency to decisively deal with the obligors.

“As AMCON, we have no power to arrest these ‘powerful’ people as we depend largely on judicial processes to recover and we all know the slow pace of judicial processes. Given our sunset date, which is around 2013/24; we are determined to go after these obligors within the ambit of the law in line with the AMCON Act.

“Already, we have changed our strategy to more of enforcement, because the negotiations have failed. We now want to go a step further by working with the ICPC and the EFCC, which will enable us to go investigate the credit processes. If we do not establish this deterrent, we are likely to go round the era of NPL circle again.”

To his host, he said: “Your chamber must be in the forefront to champion good corporate governance structures; you must preach that people must learn how to meet their obligations; people must obey the rule of law and be transparent in their dealings with others. Above all, we must promote the culture of holding people accountable, especially the leadership class in both politics and business.”

Modelled on organisations including Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency Ltd. and Korea Asset Management Corp., AMCON used bonds to bail out 10 lenders and buy more than 12,000 loans from industries; including aviation, gasoline marketing and manufacturing after the 2008-09 oil price crash. It’s so far recovered N1 trillion, Kuru said.

The CEO said extending the operations of AMCON beyond its 2023 deadline would do more harm than good, because that could encourage bad behaviour in the financial industry and among borrowers.

“The federal government should be appropriating the money yearly” required to meet its obligations should the bad debts not be recovered, Kuru also said.

AMCON plans to appoint advisers this year for the sale of Polaris Bank, a lender it took over last year after it breached central bank’s capital and liquidity thresholds, the CEO said. AMCON recapitalised Polaris Bank with N786 billion and has no plans to rescue other lenders, he said.

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