By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has rubbished reports that it was planning to take over the Dangote Refinery in Lagos, which is yet to commence operations.
It was reported on Tuesday that the agency would likely seize the 650,000-barrel per day (BPD) integrated refinery project tucked in the Lekki Free Zone of Lagos because of alleged rising debt liability.
According to the reports, the company allegedly owes commercial banks over $7 billion and with a possible $700 million per annum debt servicing, as the reports stated, the debt burden could swell to $8.4 billion by 2025.
But the Head of Corporate Communications at AMCON, Mr Jude Nwauzor, informed LEADERSHIP that the agency has no reason to take over the organisation since the Dangote Group was not on its debtors’ list, describing the reports as false.
Recall that AMCON was established to buy back toxic loans in the financial industry and recently, the organisation lamented that it has not been able to recover most of the debts.
The Managing Director of AMCON, Mr Ahmed Kuru, had said about N1.48 trillion (35.6 per cent) of the N4.16 trillion bad loans it acquired has been retrieved.
He had lamented that due to debt recovery challenges the corporation was facing, it still had 7,902 outstanding obligors with a total outstanding loan of above N3.1 trillion, adding that 350 obligors alone accounted for over N2.05 trillion, which constitutes more than 70 per cent of the total outstanding amount.
Adedapo Adesanya