Ten Deposit Money Banks out of over twenty two at the period have contributed N287.6 billion into the sinking funds of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) as at December 31, 2016.
This is coming at a time when for the third time this year, the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Newsdirect, Dr Samuel Ibiyemi, said AMCON in 2016 was the undisputed debt recovery agency in Nigeria with the recovery of over N681.5 billion from chronic debtors that were hitherto recalcitrant before the arrival of the current management of AMCON led by Mr Ahmed Kuru as its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer.
Though shareholders over the years have criticised the levy imposed on banks, saying that it is decreasing investors’ returns on their investment, a schedule of AMCON’s sinking funds showed that between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2016, the sum of N287.6 billion was paid in four years by Zenith Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Access Bank Plc and seven others.
Specifically, Zenith Bank, which had transferred a total of N67.8 billion, made the highest remittance to the sinking funds domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Zenith Bank was closely followed respectively by UBA with a total of N43.5 billion and Access Bank with N42.18 billion in four years contribution to AMCON’s sinking funds.
The document also revealed that while Access Bank Plc transferred a total of N42.18 to the funds, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc remitted N39.6 billion; Fidelity Bank Plc – N22.07 billion; First City Monument Bank– N20.8 billion; Union Bank Of Nigeria Plc – N18.4 billion and Sterling Bank Plc – N14.8 billion.
The amounts transferred by other commercial banks also included Unity Bank Plc – N11.5 billion and Wema Bank Plc – N6.79 billion. First Bank of Nigeria Holdings (a holding company) had contributed N48.9 billion while Diamond Bank payment to AMCON was N18.24 billion between 2013 and 2015.
The AMCON Bill was passed in June 2010, and signed into law by the then president on July 19, 2010, implying that the bad bank commenced operations in the third quarter of 2010 (barely seven years ago).
Effective 1 January 2011, the banks in Nigeria were required to contribute 0.3 per cent of total assets as at the preceding year end to AMCON’s sinking fund in line with existing guidelines. These banks made the payments into the corporation since the fees were increased to 0.5 per cent in 2013.
The contribution to AMCON is a levy on all deposit money banks in Nigeria. It is non-refundable and does not represent any ownership interest nor does it confer any rights or obligations (save to pay the levy) on the contributor and meant to be for 10 years from the effective date of December 2010.
The Banking Sector Resolution Cost Trust Fund (BSRCTF) by AMCON made total collections of N175.97 billion during the 2016 financial year while AMCON realized total recoveries of N139.04 billion during the year. In 2015, the corporation’s, BSRCTF generated N176.99 billion.
Meanwhile, one year after AMCON introduced the Asset Management Partners (AMP) programme, Mr. Ahmed Kuru, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer wants the AMPs to take the assignment seriously as those that performed creditably well stand the chance of having their portfolio increased in the second batch.
AMPs are consortiums with specialist skills required to ensure recovery and debt resolution; banking, legal, valuation and accounting. They began operations in May 2016 working together with AMCON to resolve the over six thousand accounts with loan balances of N100million and below.
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