The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Arc. Ahmed Dangiwa has said the bank is working on rolling out some form of palliatives to mortgage banks, developer and individuals in Nigeria who are affected by the economic meltdown occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic.
Dangiwa spoke at a webinar hosted by the Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN) and held on the 7th of May, with theme “COVID-19: Housing as a Solution- FMBN leading through the crisis.”
He explained that the bank is aware that the pandemic is taking its toll on all sectors of the Nigerian economy and Mortgage banks, developer and mortgage subscriber are at the receiving end, adding that there would be need for a moratorium to assist those who have been incapacitated by the effects of the pandemic.
“Some of the measures FMBN is taking is palliative for mortgage banks and developers. We have instituted dialogue with MBAN towards working out response to challenges that individuals may be facing especially in the mortgage repayment.
You will find out that those in the self-employed category are the ones most affected by this pandemic, in which some people are locked for the previous two months and only God knows whether it will extend to another one month or so. So for this categories, it is very clear that they will need some moratorium and assistance in order to see what can be done.”
While commenting on some of the achievements of the bank in the last three years, Dangiwa stated that a lot of progress had been made in the NHF contributory scheme and in other areas of operation.
“We came on board in 2017 and within the last three years, we have achieved a lot in terms of many aspects of our own operations. One of it is the contributing states to the NHF Scheme. NHF as we well quite know is a contributory scheme by all Nigerian workers both formal and informal sector, so when we came on board, some states were not contributing to the scheme. We were able to bring them on board, up to seven states when we came on board. That has now improved. Currently, only two states have not yet joined the NHF scheme, that is Kano and Oyo. he said”
He explained further that the bank also made remarkable progress in registering more workers for the NHF Scheme, saying “we have improved in the aspects of registering employees. 1,629 were brought into the scheme currently, from what we met at 22, 000 employees. Now we currently have 23,760 employees. We also have over five million contributors to the scheme. It was through our coming within the last three years that over 500,000 more were brought into the contribution”
While giving details on the funds generated by the NHF scheme, Dangiwa said “When we came on board, we met that fund had generated 232 Billion naira so far. So we realized that it wasn’t enough. With the contributing standard we brought in within the last three years, we were able to generate 151 billion naira more on to the 232 billion that was generated in the last 25 years that the bank has existed, that is 1992 to 2017. Now we have the total of contributions at 383 billion into this fund.”
Additionally, he stated that “In terms of loans generation and disbursements, we have done a lot in that area also, to the extent that we have given loans with total loans approval of 128 billion naira out of which 98 billion naira has been disbursed, generating the number of housing mortgage loans to over 4,000.”
The FMBN boss also revealed that the bank is working on a new product called the Diaspora mortgages and plans are underway to include such into the NHF scheme.
“The additional new product we want to focus on is diaspora mortgages. We have started developing these diaspora mortgages. We are now in the process of discussing with other stakeholders that are involved in this mortgage, like the diaspora mortgage commission in the country and we have reached out to some of the people outside the country, in London and some other European countries in order to bring them into th scheme of NHF to which they can benefit from.” he said.
He however assured that the bank is improving on its operations adding that “the management is focussed on consolidating achievements going forward, and will not rest on its oars making sure institution investors prescribed by the NHF act, the bank and insurance companies comply under terms they will find attractive.
