Bank debtors who are owing N5.4 trillion are set to lose their assets.
They have failed to honour their promises to pay, the Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) said yesterday.
AMCON Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Ahmed Kuru told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the N5.4 trillion debt had lingered for too long.
Kuku said AMCON was tired of obligors (debtors) lying about staggered payment plans, which they never complied with.
He said the N5.4 trillion debt had been with the banks for five years before AMCON bought them over, adding that after seven years of the companies’ operations, the obligors were yet to pay.
“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 facility has 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 it.”
Kuru added that in the case where the registered assets of a debtor-company not enough to clear its obligation, AMCON would also go after the directors and their private companies.
He said: “We are training our people more to see that they become more efficient.
“Most fundamentally, we have changed our strategy. Before, our strategy had been only resolution: you come, you give us a payment plan and we respect it.
“But we have realised that more than 80 per cent of AMCON’s recoveries are as a result of either forfeiture or taking over of businesses or outright cash payment.
“My law allows me to not only go after the assets that are served as collateral but I can also go after the directors of companies. I can go after the assets that have not been served as collateral.
“This is where we are now heading to because the law had anticipated this situation that we are now in,” he said.
Kuru said there was need for some sections of the law to be amended, adding that the company was working with the National Assembly to amend laws. (The Nation)
