In view of its impending winding down, under its enabling Act, Ahmed Lawan Kuru, Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), says the corporation is now more aggressive in the area of recovery and expects partners to work with the same zeal.
Speaking at a two-day Interactive/Feedback session for Asset Management Partners (AMPs) currently handling over 6,000 toxic accounts within AMCON portfolio in Abuja, Kuru warned that the corporation will sack AMPs that cannot cope with the desired speed.
AMCON, he insisted, places premium importance on recovery efforts in view of its importance in helping to achieve the corporation’s core mandate, hence the decision to outsource 6,000 accounts valued at N740bn or 20% of the N3.7tr total portfolio.
“We know it is not easy the jobs we have assigned to you. Recovery is a difficult job but even at that, a few of you (AMPs) have shown they cannot cope; we may have no choice to disengage such partner. But those that have done well… we will upgrade and even assign more responsibilities to such partners because there is indeed need for speed in this assignment. We are convinced that the AMP programme is key to the success of AMCON, and we will give you all the necessary support to make you succeed in this exercise,” he added.
A statement by Jude Nwuzor, spokesman of the corporation, said the AMP programme established in 2016 became necessary help recover its 12,000 loans portfolio across various sizes across sectors still lingering many years after the corporation was established.
The job, he continued, could not be left for AMCON staff alone, hence the need for a strategic approach to improve coverage, recovery and results, leading to appointment of consortiums after a rigorous selection process. The partners, he assured, were selected based on specialist skills in banking, law, valuation and accounting to ensure debt recovery and resolution.
Also speaking at the two-day session, Principal Partner, Lexavir Partners, Francis Chuka Agbu, a senior advocate of Nigeria and AMCON’s Group Head, Enforcements, Aliyu Kalgo, called on the AMPs to leverage the special powers as provided by the AMCON Act 2010 (as amended) to improve on their assignment.
Other speakers at the forum were: Benedict Daminabo, who spoke on AMCON Enforcement Procedures; and Kunle Olalekan, who took participants on Share Tracing and Transfer; Aaron Agada, Asset Tracing & Recovery; Abdulazeez Baba, AMP Manual of Operations; while Jude Orhotowho and Steven Olateru took handled Use of AMCON Portal; among others.
Photo Caption: Managing Director/CEO of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Ahmed Lawan Kuru (left); Principal Partner, Lexavir Partners, Francis Chuka Agbu, SAN and Aliyu Kalgo, AMCON’s Group Head, Enforcements at the AMCON/AMP Interactive Session Abuja during the week.
