AMCON to Repay N800 Billion of Bonds This Year

The Asset Management Corp. of Nigeria, set up by the CBN to buy bad debts from banks, said it plans to repay 800 billion naira ($4.9 billion) of bonds due August this year.

That leaves 3.8 trillion naira of remaining debt after 1 trillion naira was redeemed last year, Kayode Lambo, a spokesman for the Abuja-based organization known as Amcon, told reporters in Lagos today.

Africa’s largest economy established Amcon in 2010 to buy bad debt from banks and save the industry from collapse as lenders reeled when loans to stock speculators and fuel importers soured after the global financial crisis in 2008. The agency spent 5.6 trillion naira in 2011 to acquire non-performing loans and took over three of the eight banks it rescued with a 620 billion-naira bailout.

Two of the lenders it took over, Mainstreet Bank Ltd. and Enterprise Bank Ltd., will be handed over to new owners by Sept. 15, Amcon Chief Executive Officer Mustafa Chike-Obi told reporters. Its divestment in Keystone Bank will start once done with the other two companies, he said.

“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.