BY VICTORIA ONU, ABUJA
THE Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria has been honoured with an award by the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management as an Impactful Housing Institution at its 2021 Induction and Awards Day in Abuja.
The award was in recognition of the efforts of the current FMBN Management to ensure that more Nigerians that contribute to the National Housing Fund Scheme are able to get affordable housing loans to own their dream homes.
Speaking at the event, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Ahmed Dangiwa, represented by the Group Head, Corporate Communications, Lawal Isa, thanked the management of the ISM for the award and reiterated FMBN’s commitment to doing more in line with its mandate to provide affordable housing to Nigerians.
Dangiwa highlighted some key achievements of the FMBN within the past four years to include disbursement of over N130bn in housing loans, financing construction of 9,540 housing units, origination of 5,985 mortgages and 63,079 home renovation loans to Nigerian workers.
The FMBN boss stated further that the bank was promoting mass housing in Nigeria through the financing and development of FMBN Mini Cities, which targets the development of 20,000 housing units annually over the next five years and is to be implemented in collaboration with reputable Real Estate Developers.
He also said the initiative was targeting 5,000 housing units over the next 12 months under the National Economic Sustainability Plan that was recently approved by the Federal Executive Council to stimulate economic growth and create jobs.
According to him, each project site is being planned to host between 1,000 and 2,500 units per project site. The house types, he stated, included two and three bedrooms and some terraces to cater for different income categories of Nigerians.
Regarding housing finance, the FMBN boss noted that the FCT accounted for 20 per cent (5,303) houses funded by FMBN nationwide and 22 per cent (N20.7bn) of the N95.3bn disbursed from 1992 to date.
He said the FCTA had been proactive in developing a Master Plan and mechanism for public and private sector partnership for the physical development of the FCT.
As a housing-focused Development Finance Institution, Dangiwa said the FMBN was playing a significant role for affordable housing delivery at the national level with considerable impact in the FCT as well.
He said, “The provision of housing infrastructure is critical to delivering affordable housing but there has been a general lapse on the part of government to meet growing expectations and needs.
“This has resulted in heavy reliance on the private sector to attempt to bridge the huge infrastructure gap with higher costs.
“Greater levels of partnerships between the FCTA and the FMBN are required to creating a dynamic synergy that would be capable of addressing the increasing need for affordable housing in the FCT.
“In summary, the provision of infrastructure by the FCTA is critical to housing development and affordability in the FCT.”
The Minister of State for FCT, Dr Ramatu Aliyu, said the administration would continue to support entrepreneurship development in the territory because it was the life wire of economic growth.
The Minister explained that the Federal Capital Territory Administration would not relent in rewarding high impact entrepreneurs who had done very well in the various business-related contexts under the supervision of the Abuja Enterprise Agency.
