The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria says it plans to repay N800bn of bonds due by August this year.
The spokesperson, AMCON, Mr. Kayode Lambo, who said this in Lagos on Tuesday, said the development would make the corporation’s outstanding debt to be N3.8tn, after redeeming N1tn last year.
The government had established AMCON in 2010 to buy bad debts from banks and save the industry from collapse after the global financial crisis in 2008.
The agency spent N5.6tn in 2011 to acquire non-performing loans and took over three of the eight banks it rescued with N620bn bailout, according to a Bloomberg report.
The Chief Executive Officer, AMCON, Mr. Mustafa Chike-Obi, told reporters that Mainstreet Bank Limited and Enterprise Bank Limited, two of the three nationalised banks, would be handed over to new owners by September 15.
He said the divestment in Keystone Bank would start once it was done with the other two companies.
“AMCON does not see the possibility of buying new non-performing loans till it winds up by 2022 as the banks are now stronger,” Chike-Obi said.
He also said the corporation might not buy any non-performing loans again because the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Ministry of Finance had directed against it.
“The way the law works is that the CBN has to designate what an eligible bank asset is. Then, the CBN has to designate what an eligible financial institution is. The CBN has to give is us the pricing model for buying the loans. The CBN, Ministry of Finance, board, management have said AMCON should not buy NPLs again. The CBN has to come with another pricing model for us to buy. That will not happen unless there is a major banking crisis and I don’t foresee that happening,” he said.
