Banking
AMCON Acquires N3.7tr Bad Loans from Banks
**Pumps N2.2tr into 10 Banks
By Dipo Olowookere
Over 12,000 Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) from 22 banks worth N3.7 trillion have been acquired so far by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Business Journal is reporting.
AMCON was created by Federal Government to be a key stabilizing and re-vitalizing tool aimed at resolving the non-performing loan assets.
According to the report, the sum of N2.2 trillion has been injected as financial accommodation to 10 commercial banks in order to prevent systemic failure in the banking sector. This has contributed in stabilising the financial system in Nigeria.
Records from AMCON also indicate that about N3.66 trillion of depositors’ funds were protected since the creation of the corporation during the 2008/2009 financial crisis while approximately 14,000 jobs were saved as a result of AMCON’s intervention in the banking sector.
Meanwhile, leading legal luminaries including the former Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice I. N. Auta and the President of Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa have joined the campaign by the management of AMCON) in calling for a paradigm shift in debt recovery processes in Nigeria.
Such shift according to them would act as act as panacea, if indeed the Corporation were to meet its mandate of resolving its huge outstanding obligation.
Current AMCON management under the leadership of its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ahmed Kuru, upon assuming office and reviewing the challenges as well as bottlenecks inhibiting recoveries mounted a strong campaign that the current practice where habitual and recalcitrant debtors are treated with kid gloves, especially by agencies of government would not help AMCON resolve these loans before its sunset date.
According to Justice Auta, the approach to debt recovery and resolution must change at this point in the life of AMCON especially going into 2018 and beyond because the Corporation came as a child of necessity at the time it was created with all the good intentions in the world to recalibrate the beleaguered economy of the country at the time.
In his words, “Nigeria witnessed the 2007 global financial crisis, which was caused by insolvency, illiquidity, poor corporate governance and outright financial crimes.
“However, with the creation of AMCON by the federal government, no bank has been liquidated, depositors’ funds are safe and no bank has been subject to collection queues.
“The financial crisis led to the depression in value of the securities created against these defaulting loans thereby leaving the banks with an unfortunate inability to recover their losses.
“The effect of such monumental exposure was that banks were unable to sustain the equilibrium of lending required to maintain a vibrant economy.
“This in turn led to higher interest rates and an inability to perform the bank’s primary functions of financial intermediation like the pooling of savings and lending.”
Explaining further, he said, “In addition to significant reduction in lending to customers, financial crisis created by non-performing loans can result in breakdown of interbank lending, which in turn leads to drastic drop in liquidity of banks and a consequent reticence or direct inability to advance loans to the broader public.
“Collectively, these factors create a vicious cycle resulting in a hike in interest rates; concomitant default and insolvency; volatility of currency values; a drop in investments and general stagnation of the economy among other crisis.”
Justice Auta, having enumerated the facts, argued that it is extremely important for all stakeholders, especially Judges to note the correlation between bank failure, which AMCON saved, and a large concentration of non-performing loans.
He added that Judges have critical role to play in the insulation of the macro-economy from fragmentation since most disputes that relate to banking, which AMCON currently shoulders are presented before them.
Describing the AMCON framework as “extremely complex” he said AMCON’s goal can only be accomplished if all stakeholders, especially the entire hierarchy of the bench appreciates the fundamental underpinnings of its regime.
Lending her voice to Justice Auta’s position, Justice Bulkachuwa in her own analogy argued that since the rise of the financial sector is tied to economic growth, Nigeria’s economy, the livelihood and wellbeing of the citizenry are inextricably related to finance. She said all over the world, whenever the economy goes into crisis, governments across the world intervene to stabilise the macro-economy, which AMCON did in the case of Nigeria.
But with what she described as “deliberate reluctance” of debtors to redeem their obligations to AMCON, Justice Bulkachuwa said: “Having realised deliberate reluctance of debtors to redeem their obligations to AMCON, it would seem that AMCON has limited options other than resorting to our courts to enforce its enormous powers towards debt recovery. To recover as much debt as possible within its defined lifespan, expediency is essential if AMCON is to achieve its value maximization and financial stability goals.”
Corroborating the position of the two distinguished Justices, Mr Kuru submitted that AMCON is currently indebted to the CBN to the amount of N4.7 trillion, which is more than half of the proposed 2018 national budget.
Aside that, more than 70 per cent of AMCON’s Eligible Bank Asset (EBA), portfolio is also locked in one form of litigation or the other meaning that without the support of the judiciary, AMCON cannot see the light of day.
On the back of that, he said there is also a rising number of appeals emanating from trial courts on AMCON cases, adding that at this stage in AMCON’s existence, expeditious determination of appeals brought before the courts remains key to AMCON’s ability to resolve all outstanding assets and prevent the undesired economic consequences of failure to recover the assets. The inability to resolve the debt he argued would have dire implications for the entire Nigerian economy.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Two former employees of Access Bank Plc, identified as Mr Obadofin Daniel Bamise and Ms Hadiza Oyiza Yakubu, have been convicted and sentenced by Justice A.A. Bello of the Kaduna State High Court for theft.
The convicts were found guilty of a separate one-count charge of theft against them by the Kaduna Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
They carried out unauthorised withdrawals on the accounts of 305 customers of Access Bank, who were beneficiaries of the federal government’s Palliative Scheme, totalling N7.8 million. They posted the unauthorised withdrawals to the Palliative Scheme’s coordinators’ accounts.
After pleading “guilty” to the charges against them, Justice Bello convicted and sentenced both of them to seven years imprisonment each, with an option of a N50,000 fine each.
According to a statement from the EFCC, the charge against Mr Bamise was, “That you, Obadofin Bamise Daniel sometime between the 5th of November, 2024 and 23rd of January, 2025 in Kaduna, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, while being an employee of Access Bank Plc did in your capacity as an employee committed theft in the sum of N433.000 being property in possession of Access Bank Plc and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 274 of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law, 2017 and punishable under same Law.”
The charge against Ms Yakubu was, “That you, Hadiza Oyiza Yakubu sometimes between the 5th of November, 2024 and 23rd of January, 2025 in Kaduna, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, while being an employee of Access Bank Plc did in your capacity as an employee committed theft in the sum of N806,000 being property in possession of Access Bank Plc and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 274 of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law, 2017 and punishable under same Law.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
Leading payments technology company, Paystack, has tapped into the AI wave for businesses with the introduction of an AI-powered “Command Centre” that allows businesses to interact with their payment data using plain-language questions instead of manually navigating dashboards.
The redesigned launch marks a major evolution in how businesses interact with the company’s 10-year-old product, which has helped to monitor transactions, manage settlements, review disputes, and run day-to-day payment operations for thousands of merchants.
The revamped dashboard, built on Pax, Paystack’s internal design system, includes the AI-native Command Centre, which is embedded directly into the Dashboard, allowing businesses to ask questions in plain language and receive answers grounded in their own Paystack data, as text, tables, or charts.
The system combines GPT models, structured data retrieval, and visualisation tools to deliver responses in the most relevant format.
It also has a simpler product architecture, with navigation reorganised into two core sections: Payments and Products, making it easier for merchants to find what they need and scale as Paystack’s offerings grow.
In a statement, the company said it also has full mobile parity that makes every screen, feature, and action available on mobile as well as desktop. It also offers a dark mode feature, as well as stronger analytics and clearer navigation built into the foundation of the product
“Businesses don’t come to their dashboard because they want to click through pages. They come because they have questions,” said Ms Dara Assim-Ita, Senior Product Designer at Paystack, who led the rebuild.
“Over the last decade, we have seen firsthand how much time merchants lose navigating tools that were built to display data rather than deliver answers. With this rebuild, we have changed that. Merchants can now simply ask ‘What happened with this transaction?’ or ‘Why is revenue down this week?’ and get a direct answer. The goal is to make the Dashboard feel less like a static reporting tool and more like an intelligent command centre – one that helps merchants understand what’s happening, find what they need faster, and make better decisions.”
To support the experience, Paystack built a new service called Project Canvas API, which handles conversations, connects to model providers, and interfaces with existing Paystack systems.
As the Dashboard handles sensitive financial data, the system was built to ensure responses are grounded in real merchant data and screened against safety and compliance requirements before being returned.
The company also worked closely with its Data Protection and Privacy team, completed a Data Protection Impact Assessment, and ran extensive adversarial testing ahead of launch.
“We are at a point where artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming integral to how businesses operate, and Paystack is committed to being on that curve for our merchants. The most powerful application of AI disappears into the work people are already trying to do, and that was the design principle behind this,” Ms Assim-Ita added.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Yemi Cardoso, has urged banks to remain vigilant and take proactive measures against emerging risks following the conclusion of the banking sector recapitalisation exercise.
He made the call while announcing the outcome of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, where the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) was retained at 26.5 per cent amid sustained inflationary pressures and global economic uncertainties.
According to him, the MPC welcomed the successful recapitalisation exercise, which resulted in the emergence of 33 stronger banks with improved financial soundness indicators and greater capacity to support economic growth.
However, he warned that the strengthening of balance sheets must be matched with strong risk management frameworks to safeguard financial system stability.
“The MPC also noted with satisfaction the successful conclusion of the banking recapitalisation exercise, which culminated in the emergence of 33 banks with stronger financial soundness indicators enhancing their capacity to support the economy,” Mr Cardoso said.
The central banker added that the committee “urged the banks to remain proactive and adopt necessary measures to address potential post-recapitalisation risks towards preserving financial system stability.”
Mr Cardoso said the decisions were based on a “comprehensive assessment of risks to the outlook,” noting that despite marginal increases in inflation, the broader macroeconomic environment remained stable.
“Although inflation has risen marginally for two consecutive months, largely induced by external shocks, the committee recognises its transitory nature and remains confident that the current macroeconomic environment is sufficiently robust to support a return to disinflation,” he stated.
The committee also highlighted spillover effects from the Middle East crisis, which have pushed up global energy and logistics costs. However, it said the impact on Nigeria had been muted due to earlier policy reforms.
“These include exchange rate stability, improvements in external reserve buffers, strengthened monetary policy transmission, a well-capitalised banking system and ongoing fiscal consolidation, which have significantly bolstered the economy’s ability to absorb external shocks,” Mr Cardoso explained.
He further said the committee noted that a cautious and vigilant policy stance remains necessary to anchor inflation expectations and maintain macroeconomic stability.
“The committee was therefore convinced that the essential conditions for price stability remain firmly in place,” Mr Cardoso said, adding that policymakers will continue to monitor both domestic and global developments closely.
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