AMCON Head of Corporate Communications Department
The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has vowed to recover the sum of over N220 billion owed it by Arik Air and return the airline to profitability.
The Federal Government debt recovery agency, insisted that no amount of blackmail, intimidation or sponsored media attacks will deter it from achieving its mandate on debts recovery.
Investments of Sir Johnson Ikhide Ararume, the founder of Arik Air as at December 31, 2025, are alleged indebted to AMCON, a whooping sum of over N455 billion. (N455, 171, 764, 772.80).
Presenting the facts on the state of Arik Air indebtedness to the aviation correspondents in Lagos on Friday, the Head of Corporate Communications Department of AMCON, Mr. Jude Nwauzor stated that out of the N455, 171, 764, 772.80 owe by investments of Sir Johnson Arumem-Ikhide, as of December 31, 2024, the indebtedness of Arik Air to AMCON stands at over N220 billion.
According to Nwauzor, the breakdown of the total debts, by Sir Johnson Arumem-Ikhide investments, as of December 31, 2024, Arik Air owed AMCON N227,637,469,394.34 billion; Rockson Engineering, N163,502,837, 397.75 billion, while Ojemai Farms owed the corporation another N14, 031, 457, 980.71 billion, totaling N455, 171, 764, 772.80., 171, 764, 772.80.
Painting the sorry state of the airline’s finance before AMCON intervention, Nwauzor also said that the intervention of the Federal Government owned debt recovery agency in the troubled Arik Air in February 2017, saved the carrier from liquidation.
He also said that Arumem-Ikhide in some of its agreements with AMCON, agreed to the debts owed to the government agency, and signed restructured agreements on payback, but failed to honour his agreements.
Insisting that despite the campaign of calumny against it, AMCON insisted that it would ensure the debts were recovered and the companies returned to profitability.
He explained that contrary to widespread misinformation in some quarters, AMCON didn’t take over the running of Arik Air by fiat, but the banks, including Union Bank and Bank PHB (now Keystone Bank), Zenith, Access, Standard Chattered, Afexim, which the airline owed billions of naira, sold the non-performing loans of Arik Air to AMCON.
He insisted that the takeover followed all the due processes and in accordance with the Act setting up AMCON, and the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
According to Nwauzor, AMCON had been part of Arik Air since 2011 but was compelled to take over the company in 2017 through the appointment of a receiver manager after several interventions failed. He emphasised that the AMCON Amendment Act, 2021 empowers the corporation to, inter alia, take possession, manage, or sell all properties traced to debtors, whether such asset or property is used as security/collateral for obtaining the loan in particular.
He explained that the receiver manager also had the option of either managing or selling off the assets of a debtor company like Arik Air, but AMCON was mandated by the federal government to ensure that the airline did not die.
He said: “If you recall, at the time, there were not so many of these airlines that we have today like Air Peace, United Nigeria, Green Africa, Max Air, Value Jet, etc, so, the Federal Government at the time, mandated AMCON to save the over 1,500 jobs that would have been lost if the airline was liquidated and the best approach was to appoint a receiver manager to manage the airline. That was the mandate of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“As you know, AMCON is owned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Ministry of Finance and is guided by the AMCON Act parliament and signed into law by the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That was how AMCON came to be. What that means is that you cannot play outside the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the AMCON Act, and that the Corporation since inception is guided by this. If push comes to shove, AMCON still has the option to liquidate the company and any other debtor organizations. But, we are still today managing Arik, which was insolvent in 2015 and 2016 before AMCON stepped in.”
He pointed out that AMCON since 2017 when it intervened in the airline, had been putting in money to sustain its operations, yet was unable to recover its investment in the airline. AMCON expressed that it was because the promoters of Arik Air could not pay back the debts it owed several financial institutions either in the country or beyond, stressing that this compelled the banks to sell the non-performing loans to AMCON.
Nwauzor who further debunked the claim that Arik Air had 30 operating aircraft at the time of AMCON intervention in 2017, maintained that most of the aircraft claimed to be in the fleet of the airline were either abandoned, scrapped, or inactive at the time of intervention.
An investigation by our correspondent revealed that only eight of the 30 aircraft were operational at the time of AMCON intervention. He insisted that no matter the blackmail, AMCON would ensure the recovery of the debts irrespective of who was involved. Adding that by the time AMCON intervened in Arik Air in 2017, there was zero naira to run the airline, as both KPMG and PwC reports pronounced the airline insolvent pre-receivership.
“We did the forensic evaluation of Arik Air in 2015 and 2016; the report wrote off Arik as an insolvent company. The experts proposed that AMCON should liquidate the airline and move away. Even, the liquidation would not have recovered a fraction of the debts,” he said.
