Mr Jude Nwauzor, Head Corporate Communications Department, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON)
Contrary to some reports that the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) could take over the Dangote Refinery over debts owed by the Dangote Group to banks, the corporation yesterday denied such claims, stating that it has no business with the Dangote Group.
Some online news platforms had on Tuesday reported that Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, could forfeit the Dangote Refinery over a $7 billion debt burden owed to commercial banks in the country with a possible takeover by the Ahmed Lawan Kuru-led debt recovery agency.
AMCON, while denying such plans AMCON said neither Dangote Refinery nor the Dangote Group are on its debtors’ list, hence it couldn’t have plan to take over the assets. Head of Corporate Communications Department at AMCON, Mr Jude Nwauzor, who described the story as the “highpoint of yellow journalism,” told our correspondent on the phone that since the Dangote Group is not on its debtors list, the rumour that AMCON was planning to take over the assets of Dangote Refineries is a comprehensive fallacy.
Multiple sources in the Dangote Group also said the report was “false and malicious”, as the group has the capacity to service and pay its debt. AMCON had in 2010 purchased 12,743 bad loans worth N3.8 trillion from 22 Eligible Financial Institutions (EFIs) for a purchase price of N1.8 trillion.
According to AMCON, Dangote Refineries was not part of the bad debts that it took over in the different phases of their EBA purchases, and there was no way it would be taking over the assets of the company now.
It would also be recalled that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) of President Muhammadu Buhari had recently approved the acquisition of 20 per cent minority stake by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in the Dangote Petroleum and Petrochemical Refinery. Dangote Oil Refinery is a 650,000-barrel per day (BPD) integrated refinery project under construction in the Lekki Free Zone of Lagos State.
