Yemisi Izuora
The Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed has said that about N1tn had been recovered from debtors of banks whose loans were taken over by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, since it began operations operations in 2010.
Zainab made the disclosure in Abuja while inaugurating the board of AMCON under the chairmanship of Mr Muiz Banire (SAN).
The AMCON was set up by the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria to bail out banks through the purchase of non-performing loans and to recover loans from debtors.
At the inauguration, the minister said that out of the recovered amount, cash accounted for 60 per cent, while non-cash assets such as properties and equity securities accounted for the balance of 40 per cent.
She said over the same period, AMCON’s repayment of its indebtedness to CBN was over N1tn, while it’s total debt obligation to the CBN currently stood in excess of N5tn.
She explained that going by the current economic realities, the Federal Government could not afford to write-off the debts in the short term. She called on the new management board to come up with creative strategies to recover the outstanding loans since it had now become a moral obligation for the government to recover the outstanding liabilities.