Business
‘AMCON Recovered N134bn In 2016’
Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) recovered N134 billion in 2016, according to the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ahmed Kuru,.
Kuru said at a news conference in Lagos on Friday that N86.9 billion was from cash collections while N30.64 billion came from assets forfeiture.
He said that N7.9 billion was realised from sale of property and N8.7 billion from sale of shares.
He said that the corporation would continue to engage its obligors to enhance loans recovery, adding that AMCON would welcome customers with strategies for loan repayment within a specific period of time.
“They are quite a lot of challenges we are facing in debt recovery; we are not under illusion that it is easy to recover bad loans. Loan recovery is a very unpleasant job.”
He said that most of the customers were not willing to pay and would resort to court to seek redress.
The managing director said that court cases were slowing down the corporation’s loan recovery drive.
“Somebody can engage us for 10 years to 20 years in court and this is slowing down our operations.
Kuru said that 2016 was tougher because it was a year the country entered into recession for the first time in the last 25 years.
He said that it was difficult for people to meet their obligations due to higher inflation rate, currency devaluation, power sector challenges and drop in the price of crude oil, among others.
“It was a tougher year for Nigeria and once it is tough for Nigeria, that means it is tougher for business and AMCON too.”
AMCON boss said that 2017 would be a better year with the ongoing economic recovery, noting that once the economy picked up, obligors willing to pay back loans, would pay.
He commended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the National Assembly for their support to AMCON.
On Arik Air, he said that AMCON’s outstanding debt was N147 billion, noting that the airline would have shut down if not for the intervention.
According to him, AMCON intervention made it possible for the airline to survive.
He said that the airline was not paying salaries, insurances and fuel obligations, among others before AMCON intervention, adding that 30 aircraft of the company belonged to different people under leases and loans.
“AMCON has no business to run any business; we look for best personnel in the industry, independent of AMCON, to run any organisation we take over.
“We have disbursed more than N300 billion to support businesses to ensure their survival,” Kuru said.
In a remark, AMCON’s Chief Financial officer, Mr Olugbenga Ataiyero, said that the corporation’s mandate was not to make profit but to reconstruct loans to help businesses.
Ataiyero said that there were over N5.7 trillion loans to be financed by the corporation through the CBN at six per cent interest.
He noted that N268 billion was charged into the company’s profit and loss as interest expenses annually.
The chief financial officer further said that the company would divest from some of its subsidiaries to reduce the loss.
He added that the corporation had adopted a cost-saving approach and would only engage in very crucial expenses.
Ataiyero said that loan recovery was very low in 2016 due to the recession and other challenges in the economy.
He said that the corporation had envisaged that banks would have contributed N288 billion as sinking fund in 2016 but were only able to contribute N136 billion, due to the economic crunch.
Cornerstone of Financial Services
A survey of more than 1 000 global finance leaders undertaken by digital payment network Ripple shows that 72% of respondents believe they need to offer a digital asset solution to remain competitive.
According to Ripple, leaders from the banking, fintech, corporate and asset management sector have made it clear that the “digital asset revolution is happening now”.
“Digital assets are quickly becoming a cornerstone of financial services, underpinned by progressive regulation, growing interest from Tier-1 banks, a steady consumer shift from banks to fintech providers, and booming stablecoin adoption,” Ripple says.
The survey was conducted in early 2026 and the findings released in March.
Stablecoin Boon or Bane?
Ripple has experienced significant success in the stablecoin sector since launching its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in 2024.
With a market cap of $1.56 billion, it is considered a major regulated player in the market.
No doubt the platform was pleased to learn through its own survey that financial leaders were most bullish about stablecoins.
Roughly three-quarters of respondents believed they could boost cash-flow efficiency and unlock trapped working capital.
Ripple noted that finance leaders were thinking about stablecoins as more than “just a new way to execute payments”; instead, they viewed them as effective tools for treasury management.
In March 2026, Ripple began testing a new trade finance model built around RLUSD in a bid to increase the speed of cross-border payments.
The pilot initiative, developed alongside supply chain finance company Unloq [https://unloq.com], is running on the XRP Ledger inside a testing framework developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The Asian city-state is one of the platform’s biggest growth markets.
The idea behind the project is to see whether stablecoin-based settlement can streamline trade finance, too often hampered by reliance on intermediaries and slow reconciliation.
The only potential drawback is that if the initiative takes off, the Ripple to USD price could be negatively affected.
Ripple has always championed its native XRP token as a bridge asset, the “middleman” in the process of a financial institution turning dollars in the US into pounds in the UK, for example.
Ripple converts dollars into XRP and then back into pounds.
If RLUSD can do exactly the same thing, questions will be asked about XRP’s relevance.
That is a bridge Ripple will have to cross if it gets to that point.
Tokenisation Partners
Another interesting finding from Ripple’s survey is that most banks and asset managers are seeking tokenisation partners to help execute their strategies.
Some 89% of respondents said digital asset storage and custody were top priority. “Token servicing/lifecycle management also ranks highly for banks at 82%, while asset managers place greater emphasis on primary distribution at 80%,” Ripple found.
The survey also revealed that just more than half of fintechs and financial institutions want an infrastructure provider that can offer a “one-stop-shop solution”. This rose to 71% among corporate financial leaders.
Ripple attributes this to institutions and firms wanting uncomplicated, cohesive systems.
Infrastructure Rules
In its final analysis, Ripple says companies across the board are looking for partners and solutions that are “secure, compliant, battle-tested and that enable growth and execution”.
“The message is clear: infrastructure decisions made today will shape competitive positioning tomorrow.”
No surprise that this is precisely where Ripple is placing much of its focus.
