Executive Director,Business Development & Portfolio Mgt, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, FMBN Mr Umar Abdullahi, has said that the bank needs urgent rescue and recapitalisation of N500 billion in a bid to provide affordable housing for Nigerians and up scaling of the secondary mortgage market. Abdullahi said this in Calabar shortly after declaring a two 2 day Southern Zone Retreat of the bank open, with the theme: “Motivating The Informal Sector to Embrace the NHF scheme”. The Executive Director said that the bank which is the foremost secondary market was established with a capital base of just five billion Naira stressing that with such capital base ,the bank cannot meet the housing needs of Nigerian workers.
Abdullahi who called on the Federal government to urgently recapitalise the bank with at least 500 billion Naira to make houses more affordable for Nigerian workers added that such move will invariably lead to an upscale in the secondary mortgage market. His words :”The capital base of the,Federal Mortgage Bank is low, the institution is really yearning for rescue and recapitalisation. It was created with a capital base of just N5 billion, being the foremost secondary mortgage market that capital base can no longer stand the realities of current times on ground, so it needs urgent rescuing. Even primary mortgage banks have N5 billion capital base, so it ought not to be so for the foremost secondary market .When we came in ,we reviewed the situation and told the federal government the bank needs urgent rescue and recapitalisation .
“I believe that if the recapitalisation is done in the tune of N500 billion, the secondary mortgage market will upscale in Nigeria and the sky will be our limit and many Nigerians will have affordable. houses. We are working tirelessly to make sure Nigerians housing stock improves.The bank is for the Nigerians workers ,and we want to provide houses that are affordable and we have ensure that our interest rate remains 6 percent ,a single digit margin. We are working with all stakeholders to make sure that houses become very affordable. The new management has paid N18 billion refund under the National Housing Fund,NHF scheme ,out of the N24 billion that have been so far paid to over 24,000 beneficiaries and we are not resting on our oars”, he said.
