The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and operators in the housing sector say they will strengthen partnerships in identifying areas of collaboration to bridge funding gaps and improve liquidity in the mortgage financing in the country.
Managing Director of FMBN, Shehu Usman Osidi stated this yesterday at the FMBN day in the ongoing Africa International Housing Show (AIHS).
He said regardless of challenges in the sector, the bank has consistently served the needs of the Nigerian populace within the limits of its resources.
"Since its re-establishment in 1993, the bank has delivered about 39,000 new homes, about 25,500 mortgages and over 120,000 micro housing loans, all within a single-digit interest rate lending regime. Under the National Housing Fund (NHF) Scheme, it has registered 26,350 organisations and over 5.8 million cumulative contributors with over 1 million accounting for the self-employed sector. The bank has disbursed the cumulative of N440 billion under its various loan windows to drive affordable housing finance for the Nigerian economy. To its record, the sum of N84.8 billion has been refunded to 492,604 contributors who exited the Scheme in line with the provisions of the NHF Act.
Again, over the years, the bank has expanded its bouquet of loans from mortgage financing, to housing construction, to micro housing financing and more recently, a rent-to-own product.
"With the rapidly changing landscape and growing need for affordable housing financing, FMBN's clientele base has widened from solely primary mortgage banks to private and public real estate developers, housing cooperatives and now to individual NHF contributors for home self-construction. The latest additions to its loan products are the Home Improvement and Rent Assistance loans, which are micro housing loans specifically intended for but not exclusive to the non-salaried Informal Sector," he explained On what the bank is currently doing, Osidi noted that "To support Mr President's Housing Agenda, the bank extended a N100 billion off-taker guarantee to the consortium of developers undertaking the Renewed Hope Cities & Estates Programme which commenced with the groundbreaking of the 3,112-housing unit Renewed Hope City in Karsana, being part of the 100,000 housing units to be built nationwide;
"We are conducting a nationwide assessment of all ongoing projects in order to ensure timely completion of the estates while putting in place effective measures to ensure immediate offtake through the bank's mortgage finance window when completed.
"Also, we initiated constructive engagement with the Federal Ministry of Finance to secure refunds of the wrongful deductions of NHF contributions misconstrued as revenue under the 40% deduction regime of revenue accruing to Federal Agencies, which led to the recovery of N12b out of the outstanding N19b into the bank's coffers. We are still engaging relevant authorities until the deductions are stopped and we recover the outstanding balance of the trapped NHF funds," he added.
Also contributing to the discussion, Riskatu Ahmed, Managing Director of Aso Savings highlighted the need for further deepened collaboration between the FMBN and primary mortgage banks.
"FMBN needs to reach out to PMBs and find out legacy issues. Most of the issues were not created by contributors as such there is a need for partnership to identify challenges and tackle them," she said
Hayatuddeen Atiku Awwal, the Managing Director of Federal Housing Authority Mortgage Bank noted that the Constitution of Nigeria made provision for shelter as one of the basic needs of citizens.
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He therefore urged FMBN "To partner professional organisations like COREN, NIESV, NIQS and other professionals to provide adequate advice on the best funding and housing methods to be deployed in tackling deficit and improving funding,"
Earlier in his remarks, the convener of the Housing Show, Barr. Festus Adebayo while providing a recap of activities stated that in the three days of the show, government and private sector officials have reeled out their efforts and plans in providing affordable homes
He added that other activities scheduled for the coming days will also involve sensitisation on mortgage financing for Nigeria's youthful population among others
Also Adebayo revealed that "The Show will not end without stakeholders providing a practical solution to housing funding in the country,"
