The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Arch Ahmed Dangiwa, has charged the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria to explore ways to construct affordable housing for Nigerians.

Speaking during the bank's retreat in Abuja over the weekend, Dangiwa said the bank needs to transform and innovate to lead a new era of massive housing development and delivery "even in these difficult times of high construction costs and lower incomes."

He added that the government has instituted a Housing Institution Reform Task Team composed of housing industry experts, stakeholders, agency representatives, professional bodies, and academia.

He assured that the reforms and legislative amendments that the reform team would carry out in collaboration with stakeholders and the National Assembly Urban Development will be the most comprehensive set ever done in the history of housing.

"FMBN is also a key part of the Multi-Agency Project Delivery Task Team which we inaugurated. The aim is to ensure that all housing agencies under the supervision of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development work for affordable housing to Nigerians collaboratively through optimizing their strengths to deliver decent housing."

The Managing Director of FMBN, Madu Hamman, said the bank has embraced visionary innovations through its partnership with private developers, state governments, cooperatives, labour centres and other stakeholders to deliver affordable housing for Nigerians.

He said the bank has been able to provide accessible and affordable housing finance to Nigerians by easing the equity requirements on NHF mortgage loans, adding that "these new products and housing programmes include: approval of the NHF Individual Construction Loan, Approval of the Rent-to-Own product and Revamping of the Cooperative Housing Development Loan (CHDL)."