AMCON vows to go after chronic debtors

The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has sent a strong warning to chronic bank debtors to clear their debts or risk legal actions after their names have been published in national dailies.

AMCON in a release issued yesterday said at the expiration of the August 1, 2015 given to banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), if the bad debtors fail to service their non-performing loans, it will have no choice but have their names published.

The CBN had in April after its Bankers Committee meeting in Lagos mandated banks to publish the names of chronic debtors in three national dailies and blacklist them from the country’s foreign exchange market as well as the government debt markets, if they fail to pay their debts by August 1.

It claimed it would not hesitate to take legal actions against any debtor whose loan is non-performing as part of efforts to recover it.

AMCON said these debtors should not think they have their debts written off, urging them to present restructuring plans for their loans.

It was set up in 2010 to absorb non-performing loans in exchange for government bonds, after the CBN injected $4 billion to rescue nine lenders from collapse six years ago.

The apex bank has since set an upper limit of 5 percent for non-performing loan ratio for the industry. Before the 2009 bailout non-performing loans ratio stood in double digits.

Top Nigerian commercial banks including Stanbic IBTC , Diamond Bank, First Bank and Skye Bank, have all given notices to bad debtors to pay up.

The bank this year said it had recovered 57 percent of bad debts, estimated around 1.8 trillion naira from over 12,000 debtors of commercial lenders in Africa’s top economy.