AMCON, Finance Ministry Await Resolution Strategy From Arik Owners To Clear Over N200billion debt

By Hannah Nathan ,Warri

The owners of Arik are required to come up with a compelling resolution plan in order to pay off the company’s approximately N200 billion in debt to AMCON, the Central Bank of Nigeria, and the Ministry of Finance.

In a media discussion with journalists yesterday in Ikeja, Lagos, the managing director and CEO of AMCON, Mr. Ahmed Lawan Kuru, highlighted that if not for the involvement of Arik via its corporation, the airline would have long since shut down for business.

According to him, “those pushing that negative campaign forgot that Arik at the time had a passenger load of about 50%” while expressing concern over the information the proprietors of the Arik were disseminating to the public, which he said was only partially true before AMCON, acting as receiver, acquired control in 2017. The government of the day, however, felt firmly that the airline needed to be saved from impending failure and public humiliation because of its strategic importance to Nigeria’s aviation sector.