The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) has disbursed N226. 6 billion as loan through the National Housing Fund (NHF) in an effort to address the housing deficit in the country, the Managing Director, Mr Ahmed Dangiwa, says. Dangiwa spoke in Abuja at the ongoing National HouseFair 3.0 with theme, “New Economy: Amplifying the Impacts and Possibilities of Real Estate Utilising Technology’’. He said that the bank had registered 4,927,407 contributors and 23,387 organisations on NHF. Construction of 27,584 housing units financed to date, 20,591 NHF mortgage loans granted to NHF contributors while 27,247 housing micro-loans of N28.9 billion disbursed.
“More than N31.1 billion was refunded to 273,485 retirees,’’ Dangiwa said. He said that the bank was targeting affordable homeownership for Low and Medium Income (LMI) market segment.
According to him, LMI segment accounts for about 90 per cent of the Nigerian population. Dangiwa said that mortgage finance accessibility and affordability formed a major focus of the bank. He said that “government-assist fund’’ was critical for improving affordability for the middle income market. “The future growth and development of the Nigerian housing sector, especially the mortgage sub-sector, is predicated on expanding housing access and affability for the middle class,’’ Dangiwa said. He said that as demonstrated in economies like the U.S., Singapore and others, empowering the middle class through homeownership was the surest avenue for economic development drive by production and construction consumption.
According to him, empowering the middle class creates a wealthy society. Dangiwa said that the adoption of a multi-dimensional approach to housing finance in Nigeria must be encouraged and strengthening government institutions delivering assist- funding and collaboration among relevant stakeholders. Mrs Becky Damilola-Oke,` Managing Director, Bstan Mortgage and Cooperation and the convener of the fair, said that inadequate housing could affect the security, physical health and privacy of man. Damilola-Oke said that housing policy was a tool that was used in town planning for solving housing problems and consequently for the achievement of sustainable housing.
She said that town planning focuses on spatial arrangement of urban and rural land use for the purpose of creating orderly, economical and functional efficient. Damilola-Oke said that policy instrument was one of the ways of tracking housing problems. She said that the new economy could be used to embrace housing-technology innovation. (NAN)
