The Asset Management Corporation of
Nigeria has said that there will be no more room for negotiation with
debtors as it is now set for a new stage of complete asset takeover......
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, AMCON, Mr Ahmed Kuru, who stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Sunday, said the N5.4tn debts had lingered for too long.
Kuru said AMCON had got tired of debtors
coming to its office and telling lies about wanting to embark on
staggered payment, which they ended up never fulfilling.
He stated that most part of the N5.4tn
debt had been with the banks for five years before AMCON bought them
over, adding that after seven years of its operations, the obligors had
yet to pay.
Kuru said, “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 facilities have
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 them.”
He added that in the case where the
registered assets of a company that was in debt were not enough to clear
their obligations, then AMCON would also go after the directors and
their private companies.
Kuru said as part of the new strategy of
AMCON, directors of companies would now be sought after so that they
would be forced to take part in repaying loans obtained by their firms.
No comments: