NIGERIA (Abuja)-Dr. Mustapha Chike-Obi, who is the Managing Director of the Asset Management Corporation on Nigeria (AMCON), has revealed that additional N1 trillion of its debts would have been paid by October.

He said this on Monday at a one-day public hearing on the AMCON Act, 2010 (Amendment) Bill, 2014, which was put together by the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions in Abuja.

According to him, over 50 per cent of the non-performing loans acquired by the agency has been recovered and not the 15 per cent that has been thrown around in the press recently.

“I want to say that these were debts that the banks had given up on. Some of those debts were seven to 10 years old.

“Additionally, in December 2013, because of the huge success in restructuring and recovering debts, we have been able to pay off N1trillion of our debts well ahead of schedule.

“We also plan to pay off an additional N1trillion of debts in October 2014 which will reduce AMCON’s indebtedness by 30 per cent in the first four years of operation.”

He disclosed that the N5.676 trillion was used to purchase Eligible Bank Assets (EBAs), recapitalization of Enterprise, Keystone and Mainstreet Banks and injection of capital into five intervened banks.