TheCable

Ahmed Kuru, the managing director/chief executive officer, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), was among the 16 persons who won the Businessday excellence in public service awards.

Others who received the award alongside the AMCON CEO include; Mary Uduk, acting director-general, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Usman Mohammed, managing director/CEO, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN); Ahmed Bobboi, executive secretary, Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEP); Yusuf Kazaure, managing director/CEO, Galaxy Backbone, Mohammed Kari, commissioner for insurance and CEO National Insurance Commission (NAICOM); and Umaru Ibrahim, managing director/CEO Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).

While presenting the award, the newspaper said Kuru deserved to be celebrated because under his watch at the helm of affairs at AMCON, the corporation has sharpened its focus on recovery of debts, while keeping a disciplined check on its operating expenses.

The award, which was presented at Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, in Abuja, was received by Jude Nwauzor, head, corporate communications at AMCON, on behalf of the MD. 

The newspaper added that the corporation under Kuru has made some ingenious decisions that have helped the government recovery agency a great deal.

One of such, according to them is that the corporation resorted to using firmer resolution strategies as well as the special enforcement powers vested in it by the AMCON Act 2010 (as amended), which has recorded impressive success in compelling recalcitrant debtors, especially those that are politically exposed and business heavyweights, to meet their obligations.

In addition to its resolution mandate, AMCON through its interventions has saved several tens of thousands of jobs of Nigerians, who would have lost their livelihoods if their employers had been forced to close down. 

Only recently, Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, praised the leadership of AMCON led by Kuru for doing all within their powers to recover bad debts from some individuals that are holding the Nigerian economy to ransom.

The minister while reminding the public that AMCON was set up as a result of the global financial crisis, which destroyed the financial sector across the globe including Nigeria, said she was happy because AMCON, against all odds, has been able to recover over N1 trillion from inception till date.