AMCON laments debt recovery challenges, warns erring obligors killing economy
The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has lamented its debt recovery challenges, describing the task as arduous and challenging, especially as some debtors are unwilling to pay.
Head of Corporate Communications Department of the Corporation, Mr. Jude Nwauzor, who briefed newsmen on the debt-recovery efforts of the organisation in Ikeja on Friday – yesterday, March 14 – said some debtors did not use the loans for the purpose they were intended and, therefore, could not make any returns on investment that would have put money in their hands to pay their debts.
Acknowledging that thousands of Nigerian individual and companies had honoured their obligations, Nwauzor lamented that AMCON has continued to face resistance from a number of other debtors unwilling to pay without a fight, pointing out that AMCON itself had always known that there was no nice way of recovering debt.
According the AMCON spokesman, obligors could go to any length to assassinate characters of AMCON staff members and its management, but urged that all stakeholders including the media should recognise AMCON’s mandate of debt recovery as one of serious national importance.
He disclosed that AMCON is being owed over N4trn.
“If at sunset AMCON is unable to recover the huge debt of over N4 trillion, it becomes the debt of the Federal Government of Nigeria which taxpayers’ money will be used to settle.
“The implication is that the general public will be made to pay for the recklessness of only a few individuals,” he said, adding that such debtors contribute to killing the nation’s economy.
Nwauzor urged the media to be interested in debtors repaying loans, describing the media as the mirror of the society.
“The management of AMCON is convinced that a deeper collaboration between AMCON and the media will deliver positive dividends for the country.
“We believe that when these obligors, who own some of the private jets you see at our airports, are challenged by the media, they will not be as bold and audacious as they have become,” Nwauzor said.
