CAPE TOWN: The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria said it has recovered 57 percent of the bad debts it took on five years ago to rescue banks in Africa’s largest economy from collapse.
“We’re a little bit behind, but not too far behind, what we expected,” Chief Executive Officer Mustafa Chike-Obi said in an interview in Lagos. “The courts are a constraining factor. As much as we want to carry a hammer, we still have to go through the court system and remain an institution that obeys the laws. That takes time.”
The state-owned agency, known as Amcon, managed to collect or reorganise the debt it bought at a rate of 1.07 times for what it paid for them, above its 80 percent target, he said. Modelled on organisations including Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency Ltd and Korea Asset Management Corporation, Amcon used bonds to bail out 10 lenders and buy more than 12 000 loans from industries including aviation, gasoline marketing and manufacturing for about 1.8 trillion naira ($9 billion).
