AMCON Hands Over Star Paper Mill, Signalling Abia’s Industrial Comeback
In a move heavy with symbolism and economic consequence, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has formally transferred ownership of the long-dormant Star Paper Mill Limited, Aba, to the Abia State Government—unlocking what could become one of the most consequential industrial revivals in South-East Nigeria in decades.
Beyond the ceremony in Umuahia, the handover represents a broader shift in Nigeria’s post-AMCON playbook: from asset recovery and warehousing to productive redeployment, state-led de-risking, and private-sector reactivation.
From Distressed Asset to Development Lever
For AMCON, Star Paper Mill was never just another distressed balance-sheet item. Once a flagship manufacturing facility supplying exercise books, paper products and even potable water infrastructure to communities, its decline mirrored Nigeria’s wider industrial slowdown driven by debt, weak governance and infrastructure deficits.
AMCON’s Executive Director (Asset Management), Dr Aminu Dan’amu, framed the transfer as part of a deliberate preservation-and-redeployment strategy.
Rather than dismantle value, AMCON’s role—by design—was to hold, stabilise and return strategic assets to hands capable of restoring productivity. In this case, the Abia State Government stepped forward as buyer, steward and catalyst.
Why This Matters for Abia—and Nigeria
For Abia, the takeover fits squarely into Governor Alex Otti’s industrial reset agenda, which prioritises reviving legacy manufacturing clusters in Aba and Owerrinta through public-sector risk absorption and private-sector execution.
At full revival, Star Paper Mill is projected to:
- Create 3,000–5,000 direct and indirect jobs
- Rebuild local supply chains for paper, packaging and allied industries
- Boost Abia’s GDP and household incomes
- Anchor ancillary SMEs across transport, logistics, retail and services
Crucially, the state has made clear it does not intend to run the factory as a public enterprise. The strategy is to stabilise ownership, clear legacy complications, and hand operational control to credible private investors—a model increasingly favoured in subnational industrial policy.
The Banking & Asset-Resolution Angle
From a financial-system perspective, this transaction underscores AMCON’s evolving relevance beyond toxic-asset cleanup.
Star Paper Mill’s transfer highlights:
- The importance of federal–state collaboration in resolving legacy industrial failures
- How bad-debt recovery can be aligned with employment, output and regional development
- A template for converting stranded assets into productive capital without fresh bailouts
It also sends a signal to lenders and investors: industrial assets written off in the past may yet yield value—if governance, leadership and incentives are reset.
Aba’s Industrial Memory, Rebooted
Before its collapse, Star Paper Mill employed over 1,000 workers directly and supported thousands more indirectly. Its revival—alongside other dormant assets such as Afro Beverages, KAN Biscuits, International Equitable Industries and Enyimba Hotel—could reposition Aba once again as a manufacturing nerve centre.
The Abia Government has already committed substantial capital to the acquisition, structured repayment plans, and stakeholder engagement—suggesting a seriousness that markets will watch closely.
BRANDECONOMY Insight
The Star Paper Mill handover is less about nostalgia and more about institutional learning. Nigeria’s industrial future will not be built solely on greenfield projects. It will also depend on how effectively governments, asset managers and financiers can rescue, retool and re-commercialise what already exists.
If Abia succeeds, this model could reshape how Nigeria thinks about distressed assets—not as relics of failure, but as latent engines of growth waiting for the right alignment of policy, capital and leadership.
