FMBN Disburses N440bn Mortgage Loans, Refunds N84bn to Exiting NHF Contributors
Reiterates plan to embark on N500bn recapitalisation drive
Recovers N12bn wrongly deducted by finance ministry
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) has disclosed that it has so far disbursed over N440 billion in various housing schemes and has refunded over N84 billion to persons exiting the National Housing Fund (NHF).
Speaking in Abuja on the occasion of the FMBN Day at the 18th Africa International Housing Show , Managing Director and Chief Executive of the bank, Mr Shehu Osidi, stressed that the bank also recovered about N12 billion wrongly deducted by the Ministry if Finance.
“Since its reestablishment 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 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,” Osidi said.
Over the years, Osidi said that the bank had 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, he stressed, 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, Osidi disclosed, 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 quoted Vice President Kashim Shettima as last year projecting Nigeria’s housing finance gap at about N21 trillion, while a 2018 PwC survey revealed that over 75 per cent of the nation’s housing stock of 42 million units failed to meet UN Habitat standards.
The report, he said, further estimated the value of ‘dead capital’, that is, unrealised earnings from housing assets with limited earning capabilities at about $300 billion, translating to 60 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Though the numbers appeared modest, the CEO said in the face of the yawning gaps in the housing sector, FMBN had not failed to be a major contributor to the development of the sector.
He added that cost efficiency was going to be at the forefront of all our operational and administrative transactions and engagements, stressing that while it will ensure competitive advantage in what it does, its focus will be on the final benefits to FMBN in the drive towards the attainment of its vision.
To demonstrate its seriousness in tackling non-performing loans, Osidi stated that the FMBN recently inaugurated seven recovery task teams to work on and recover delinquent loans across the country geo-political zones.
To support President Bola Tinubu‘s Housing Agenda, the bank said it 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.
The FMBN MD said the bank initiated constructive engagement with the Federal Ministry of Finance to secure refunds of the wrongful deductions of NHF contributions.
According to him, the funds were misconstrued as revenue under the 40 per cent deduction regime of revenue accruing to federal agencies which led to the recovery of N12 billion out of the outstanding N19 billion into the bank’s coffers.
He added that the vision of the bank is encapsulated in aggressively pursuing the recapitalisation of the FMBN to the tune of N500 billion to empower the bank with the financial capacity to mobilise adequate and sustainable liquidity for housing finance.
