The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), on Thursday disclosed that it had restructured its internal process to accelerate speedy disposals of assets.
The corporation’s Managing Director, Ahmed Kuru, made the disclosure while declaring open a 2-day Asset Sales Strategy Retreat, which just ended in Abuja today, promising that the corporation is now well positioned in its asset resolution operations.
Kuru, who was represented by the corporation’s Executive Director in charge of Operations, Mr. Aminu Ismail, explained that part of the strategy was to expand the scope of its sales strategy by engaging professionals from the real estate sector, including legal experts and regulatory stakeholders, to cross-fertilise ideas on better measures to follow to enable AMCON dispose its huge assets at good value and in good time in line with AMCON mandate.
He said: “As you may be aware, one of the key objectives of AMCON is—to obtain the best achievable financial returns for all assets acquired. Following the acquisition of Eligible Bank Assets (EBAs), AMCON is now saddled with the responsibility for recovering the bad loans either through cash repayments or asset forfeitures/foreclosures.
“In fact, the bulk of recoveries, which have been recorded at AMCON are in form of asset recoveries. Considering the fact that AMCON’s obligations to the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) is in the form of cash repayment, AMCON therefore has the responsibility of converting the assets into cash in order to meet the repayment obligations”, Kuru added.
The AMCON boss explained that from inception in 2010 to December 2017, the corporation recorded total recoveries of N731billion (excluding claw backs), with properties accounting for approximately 35 per cent.
Despite efforts by the corporation to record huge success in the assets disposal agenda, he lamented that the corporation had recorded increasing decline in its ability to dispose of assets at competitive market rates due to the several factors including inflation among other market dynamics.
Kuru explained: “At AMCON, we have realized that we cannot continue to do business as usual – it has therefore become imperative for us to seek more innovative ways of converting our huge portfolio of assets into liquid cash as quickly as possible.
“We have convened some of the most resourceful real estate professionals and legal experts to this forum to help brainstorm through the issues and proffer practical solutions to the challenges confronting AMCON. We also invited critical regulatory stakeholders to contribute to the discourse toward finding workable solutions”, he added.
Commenting at the retreat, AMCON’s Executive Director in charge of Asset Management, Dr. Eberechukwu Uneze, who was the chairman of the plenary session, noted that there was the need to have professionals, experts and agencies to collaborate with AMCON because the corporation has a stockpile of assets, which it is finding difficult to dispose in the regular open market.
Uneze listed the assets as cutting across critical sectors of the economy such as real estate, energy, transportation and aviation, maritime, agriculture and manufacturing, amongst others.
He stressed that the idle assets must be disposed as quickly as possible against all odds in order to fulfil the corporation’s mandate and achieve its objectives.
