Bad loans: Wike advises AMCON to be firm, decisive

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr. Nyesom Wike has advised the management of Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) to be firm and decisive in managing bad loans in the country.

Wike gave the advice when the management of the company, led by its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr Gbenga Alade, visited him in Abuja on Tuesday.

He noted that people collected all kinds of loans but not using them for the purpose they were collected, with the expectation that with time, the loans would be written off.

“In governance, you must step on toes.

“It is not about friendship. When things are not right, things are not right.

“So, you require tough management; you require tough leadership to say no; enough is enough.

“You may not be right all the time; you must take a decision and be firm. That is the only way this country can survive,” the minister said.

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Wike said that President Bola Tinubu has appointed Alade as head of AMCON to solve challenges affecting the company.

He urged the AMCON boss to see his appointment as an opportunity to demonstrate capacity and make a difference.

The minister noted that people view actions taken by leaders through the lens of ethnicity and religion, instead of the purpose and the merit of such actions.

Citing land administration in FCT as an example, Wike said that any action he takes was viewed in relation to religion and ethnicity.

“People think that when you are appointed as a minister, you are coming to share land and no other job – no education, no infrastructure, no health.

“You come to office, and everybody lands, land, land, land, land and nothing more, and when you want to make changes, it becomes a problem and tag it to religion and ethnicity.

“But somebody has to take the bull by the horns. That is what leadership is about,” he said.

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He promised AMCON of FCTA’s support to succeed, stressing the need for government agencies to work together to achieve common goals.

Earlier, Alade recalled that AMCOM was created in 2010 to stabilise the banking sector, suffocating with a large stock of bad loans.

He explained that although the company had existed for 14 years, “it is still battling with a lot of powerful and influential debtors who have refused to pay.”

He sought the support of the minister and other stakeholders, to help the company to retrieve all the monies owed to Nigerians by all the bad debtors.