FMBN Gets New Leadership, Targets N300bn in Annual Housing Fund
*Former MD says N174bn disbursed as loans
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The new Acting Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Mr. Kabir Yagboyaju, has assumed leadership of the organisation, promising to grow the National Housing Fund (NHF) collections from the current N50 billion to N300 billion annually.
Yagboyaju whose emergence followed the expiration of the five-year tenure of the erstwhile helmsman, Ahmed Dangiwa, also pledged to ensure that the bank’s financial ratios with the regulatory authorities are positively improved.
In addition, the economist, who is said to have worked with the mortgage bank for about 16 years, noted that one of his priorities would be monitoring of all ongoing housing development projects to ensure that the bank’s investments are properly recovered.
At the handing over ceremony at the weekend, the new FMBN boss said the speedy delivery of the bank’s computerisation project, repositioning and recapitalisation of the bank as well as the reduction in turn-around time on service delivery would be top on his list of priorities.
Prior to his appointment as the Acting Managing Director, Yagboyaju was the most senior General Manager and the Group Head, Risk Management and according to the bank, had acquired vast experience in the management of the NHF scheme, branch operations and several other areas.
He lauded the outgoing leadership for its efforts in the last five years in navigating the course of the bank towards better performance and solicited the cooperation of FMBN staff towards achieving the dream to make the bank a global institution of repute a reality.
Yagboyaju declared that he would focus on the bank’s five-year strategic plan (2020–2024) developed in collaboration with KPMG to achieve set targets.
“This includes the delivery of 100,000 housing units, growing annual NHF collections from N50 billion to over N300 billion, expanding the NHF customer base from 5 million to 25 million new contributors to be drawn mostly from the informal sector.
“We must be profitable by delivering value to our loyal customers, the NHF contributors, who have been with us through thick and thin. The task of making FMBN a great institution is one that we must achieve,” he noted.
Earlier, in a separate event, Dangiwa listed some of his management’s achievements as the mobilisation of N294.1 billion for the NHF scheme, disbursement of N175 billion in housing loans and construction finance as well as the addition of 927,000 contributors to the scheme.
According to him, the N294.1 billion in additional contribution to the NHF scheme was at an average of N58.8 billion per annum, representing an increase from the N232.8 billion the team met in April 2017.
Furthermore, he pointed out that the N175 billion in affordable housing loans and construction finance, was an improvement on the N152 billion the team met in April 2017.
Aside that, he disclosed that under him, mortgage loans were given to 5,938 Nigerians, home renovation loans to 77,575 beneficiaries and 13,499 new homes were delivered.
He also listed the speedy processing of N39.5 billion in refunds to 247,521 retired NHF contributors, representing over 350 per cent increase from the N10.8 billion the team met in April 2017 as well as the development and commencement of the N40 billion FMBN Mega Cities project.
Under his management, he said the bank relaxed equity requirements of up to 30 per cent to 10 or cent for loans above N5 million, and 0 per cent for those below N5 million while retaining single digit interest rate regime for personal loans.
According to him, while a huge backlog of unaudited financial statements dating back to 2013 was also sorted out, a lot of the milestones were achieved by ensuring transparency and accountability in the management of the NHF scheme.
