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In keeping with its
timeline of absorbing all the non performing loans in banks books by
the end of the year, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria
(AMCON) will today sign debt purchase agreements with chief executive
officers of 21 banks in the country. One bank is yet to submit its debt
profile while two foreign owned banks, Citi and Standard Chartered,
withdrew from submitting any bad loan.

With the agreement,
over N2 trillion of nonperforming loans (NPLs) will be taken off the
books of the banks and transferred to the asset company. Today’s
meeting will be attended by finance minister, Olusegun Aganga, Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Lamido Sanusi, and director general of
the Debt Management Office (DMO), Abraham Nwankwo.

AMCON was set up to
take up the bad loans in the books of banks in the wake of the global
financial crisis which took a toll on the Nigerian financial sector.

Thereafter, the CBN
injected N627 billion into Afribank, Bank PHB, Equitorial Trust,
Finbank, Intercontinental, Oceanic, Spring, Wema, and Union, to save
them from imminent collapse.

At a meeting with
bank executives on December 16, Foluke Dosunmu, AMCON executive
director of finance, explained that the rescued banks will enjoy two
sets of funds injection. One is to buy their non performing loans and
two, to cater for their capital adequacy. Mrs. Dosunmu said AMCON will
issue the first set of bonds by the end of today.

She said bonds will be issued for a two year period which will be refinanced by issuing another set of bonds next year.

“The bonds will be
zero coupons, fixed or floating, that will be tradable and liquid and
listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange,” she said.

She added that the
liquidity of the bonds will be enhanced, as it will not only be held by
banks but also fund managers, pension fund administrators, insurance
companies, trustees, and custodians. The bond will be guaranteed by the
federal government.

This development is
expected to trigger price rally at the stock market as investors cash
in to take advantage of the valuation model already released by the
asset company.

AMCON’s managing
director, Mustafa Chike-Obi, listed assets which are to be taken over
from the banks; they will be priced at 60 percent of market value on a
60-day price average on the NSE trading platform, counting back from
November 15.

Mr. Chike-Obi said AMCON will buy all non performing loans by the end of the first quarter of 2011.