Mr Ahmed Lawan Kuru, Managing Director of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has revealed that the company’s liabilities currently stand at N6.6 trillion
Kuru, who made this revelation during an investigative hearing by the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on alleged fraudulent sale of banks by AMCON, maintained that he was unaware of most of the transactions in the sale of Enterprise Bank to Skye Bank, but confirmed that due diligence was adhered to in the deal.
Kuru who took over the office late 2015, also explained that the liabilities were incurred after the purchase of bad loans worth N3.3 trillion for N1.7 trillion.
He told the committee that it took over Aero Contractors because it owns 60 per cent stake in Aero and needed to recover its money, noting that Aero showed weak corporate governance as opposed to Arik Airline, which has a strong corporate governance and is making efforts towards paying back its debts.
“We own 60 per cent equity in Aero. This is in addition to a N12 billion debt and it showed weak corporate governance. It plunged from a fleet of 15 in 2015, to three. We envisaged that if we did not intervene, there would not be any Aero in future.
”Arik is a very solid airline as it were and has not shown signs of weak corporate governance and I believe in the next two weeks, we will resolve our issues,” Kuru stated.
The Committee expressed concern over the rise in AMCON’s liabilities particularly as it owes the Central Bank of Nigeria N4.5 trillion.
The Director of Banking Supervision (CBN), Mrs Tokunbo Martins informed the committee that while the commission’s debt stands at N4.5 trillion, the N6.6 trillion includes calculated interest which will be extinguished by 2024.
“AMCON looks at its cash flow periodically…and the banks generate N250 billion annually to AMCON. They have assets that can pay off their liabilities and by 2024 when AMCON is expected to be wound down, the liabilities would have been extinguished,” she said.
She also re-echoed AMCON’s position that due diligence and due process were followed in the sale of Mainstreet and Enterprise Banks adding that the buyers, Skye Bank and Heritage Bank were not permitted to use depositors’ funds.
In its presentation at the hearing, the Executive Director, Legal and Corporate Services, Skye Bank, Abimbola Izu maintained that AMCON misrepresented facts during the sale by hiding Enterprise Bank’s liabilities from them.
She stressed that as the purchasing entity, AMCON was required to provide it with information and document as to the true nature and position of Enterprise Bank before the transaction was sealed.
-Leadership