Cosmas Ekpunobi And Adekunle Adesuji
30 November 2011
Abuja — Managing Director of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Mr. Mustapher Chike-Obi told the Senate yesterday it would take the agency 12 months to sell the recently rescued banks even as he said government has so far paid N620billion bailout to the banks.
He said the rescued banks can only start making profit from next year to be able to attract core investors.
He spoke at an interaction with Senate committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions. He said it would take the agency not less than 12 months before rescued banks can be sold to willing buyers.
He said the delay in the sale of the banks was due to the non appointment of financial advisers, saying “the process would not take less than 12 months. We can sell next month but if we do, there would be problem and so, we must follow the process”.
He also informed the committee that the banks were now in positions to break even, saying “they will start making profits next year but I can tell you that they are all doing well”.
He told the committee that AMCON had stopped buying loans from the banks with effect from November 1, and stressed that henceforth, punitive terms would be applied among other strict measures to buy non performing loans from the banks.
Chike-Obi maintained that its decision was informed by the need to discourage mismanagement and to encourage the rescued banks to perform their statutory role and secure depositors funds.
He said the rescued banks were operating at “dismal negative costs” after losing N2 billion every month and constituting time bomb to the Nigerian economy.
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