FMBN’s collection hits N52b

Source: The Nation Newspaper Published:Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

THE Managing Direc-tor, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Mr. Abdulsalam Ahmed, at the weekend said the bank had so far collected N52billion under the National Housing Fund.

The Executive Director, Organisational Resources, Mr. Magaji Bello, who represented, Ahmed at a press briefing in Abuja, added that the bank’s board reviewed the NHF loan operations in response to the numerous requests by contributors.

According to him, there was an increase in the maximum loan amount per contributor from N5million to N15million.

Besides, he noted that there was the recognition of other financial institutions such as pension fund administrators, insurance companies, microfinance banks and universal banks as mortgage loan originators.

The decision, said Ahmed, was because the former amount is now insufficient due to the inflationary trends over the years. He however noted that the bank could still lend lower than N15million.

He said: "In reviewing the loan amount that contributors can enjoy, the Board has taken cognisance of the fact that N5million is inadequate to purchase or build a decent three-bedroom house in Nigeria owing to inflationary trends over the years.

"This will provide relief to contributors who have had to bear with significant equity contributors to homeownership acquisition since the previous ceiling was insignificant to total house prices, especially in major cities of the country.

"I must add that there is no bottom limit to the NHF loan amount as every Nigerian contributing to the scheme can still borrow any amount under N15million to build, purchase or renovate houses of their choice."

While stressing that the plan to recognise additional mortgage originators had started yielding positive results, Ahmed revealed that the bank had reached an advanced stage of negotiations under the Euro Medium-Term Note (EMTN) programme to raise $1.5billion from the international debt market.

He added that 26 states had contributed to the NHF Scheme, with eight re-joining since the inception of the current management of the bank.

Ahmed noted that the bank had to disengage some of its staff because of the global economic realities and for the survival of the system.

The criteria for the termination of the appointments, according to him, were age, length of service and performance and was not targeted at any person.

He urged the contributors to pardon the banks on whatever had smeared its image in the past as the current management team would twork to come past challenges of re-branding.

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