Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Ahmed Lawan Kuru, has hinted that the AMCON may disengage Asset Management Partners (AMPs) that cannot cope with the speed and enormous challenges of expected debt recovery.
He also promised that the Corporation may assign more accounts to AMPs that have shown aggression and zeal based on the review of the AMP scheme so far.
He made this declaration at the 2019 edition of the AMCON/AMPs Interactive/Feedback Session in Abuja last week, according to a statement.
AMPs, are consortiums appointed by AMCON after a rigorous selection process with specialist skills required to ensure recovery and debt resolution; banking, legal, valuation and accounting.
Kuru noted that collaborating with AMPs became necessary because AMCON has a total portfolio of over 12,000 loans of various sizes across sectors that are still lingering many years after its establishment.
He stated that when this is compared to AMCON’s staff strength, it became obvious that the corporation surely needed a strategic approach to improve coverage, recovery and results.
Kuru also disclosed that the AMPs are currently handling over 6,000 accounts within AMCON portfolio. Although in terms of weight, the accounts, which have been outsourced to AMPs constitute only 20% or N740billion of the total Eligible Bank Assets (EBA) portfolio of N3.7trillion.
AMCON, he insisted, places equal importance on recovery efforts, as they count towards the achievement of the Corporation’s core mandate.
To achieve the mandate as part of the Corporation’s renewed strategy to resolve these loans, he said, AMCON in 2016, introduced the AMP scheme to assist in recovery activities, especially in tracing, identification and location of obligors with the intent to resolve their outstanding indebtedness. Also, tracing, identification and location of assets of obligors (both pledged and unpledged), to enhance the EBA value, and achieve set recovery objectives.
The AMPs Kuru was quoted, were also empowered to enable them get involved in negotiation of settlement and restructuring terms with identified obligors in line with approved guidelines. Also, pursuing and enforcing debt recovery and collection activities geared towards optimisation of assigned portfolio to achieve set targets and initiation of legal actions to further the loan recovery mandates in line with approved guidelines, amongst other obligor engagements.
With this laid down guideline and with AMCON sunset in sight, Kuru said the Corporation is now more aggressive with its recovery strategy, and also expects its partners to equally step up their game because the corporation will no longer accommodate any AMP that is not moving on the same speed.
“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.
Principal Partner, Lexavir Partners, Francis Chuka Agbu, and AMCON’s Group Head, Enforcements, Aliyu Kalgo, who also spoke at the forum, called on the AMPs to leverage the special powers as provided by the AMCON Act 2010, as amended to improve on their assignment.