Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria has appealed to other Federal Government agencies to support it in the recovery of N4.4tn debt from obligors.
The agency, a statement on Sunday, said its total debt exposure surpassed the 2021 budget of the 36 states in Nigeria.
AMCON made this appeal in a statement entitled ‘Risk of not recovering over N4.4tn current exposure bad for economy – AMCON’.
The agency said failure to recover the debt would greatly impact the economy as the execution of many government capital projects would be jeopardised.
It stated, “This colossal outstanding going by the 2021 budget estimate rivals the entire budget of the 36 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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“N4.4tn, which is owed AMCON is bigger than the entire 2021 capital expenditure budget of the Federal Government of Nigeria, which stands at N3.85tn.
“It is also bigger than the N3.12tn for total foreign debt service for 2021 and personnel cost of N3.7tn.”
AMCON stated that its 350 debtors could accounted for N3.6tn, which is 82 per cent of the outstanding exposure of N4.4tn.
According to the agency, if this amount is recovered it will be sufficient for the revival of the moribund Ajaokuta Steel Company and the completion of other projects.
AMCON said the development of the iron and steel sector as well as the electricity sector could benefit from such fund.
The agency explained that if the debt is recovered, it would be sufficient to capitalise over two million micro businesses with N2m cash injection each or 200,000 Small and Medium Enterprises with N20m per SME, which would create over 10 million jobs in the country.
The agency said with such developments, thousands of unemployed youths who were involved with all sorts of violent crimes would be engaged positively.
AMCON expressed its determination to recover the debts because the money belonged to Nigerian taxpayers.
