As the coronavirus pandemic lingers in Nigeria, the effect continues to be felt not only in the health sector, but also in other sectors and subsectors of the country’s economy, especially the housing sector which seems to be under the weight of the deadly virus.
With businesses generally experiencing slowdown in activities income of individuals and firms reduced, the payment of rents, rates and loans is suffering and defaults rates are rising as people concentrate their financial resources on sustaining themselves and their families.
With low income, people who are exposed to mortgage loans cannot meet their repayment obligations, leading to possible decline in the growth of the sector.
But there is hope for the sector. “We are committed and unbending in our resolve to boost the growth of the housing sector,” Rahimatu Aminu-Aliyu, Executive Director, Loans and Mortgages at the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), assured.
Aminu-Aliyu spoke at a webinar hosted by the Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN) in Abuja at the weekend with the theme ‘COVID-19: Housing as a Solution- FMBN Leading Through the Crisis’, said the bank would do its best in providing loans and refunds to NHF contributors.
“FMBN will be at the forefront of stimulating growth in the housing sector through our activities. We will continue to provide loans for real estate construction and also to NHF contributors. Due to the prudent management of NHF resources, we have adequate funds to meet our own loan applications for the time being.” she assured further.
The executive director allayed the fears of NHF contributors with regards to resuming full operations and processing of existing loan application. She said that, “as an institution, we are working hard to resume full operations as quickly as possible, but our focus will be on loan applications.
“We hope to conclude and disburse as quickly as possible. This is, therefore, to assure NHF contributors with existing loan or refund applications that we will ensure that we conclude their request in good time.”
On the issue of loan repayment, the director said they understod that some borrowers might experience challenges with repayment due to the economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic, advising that those with NHF mortgage loans in private and informal sector to talk to their primary mortgage banks on their challenges.
“We are all aware that CBN has taken the initiative to provide bank loan forbearance measures to ease the burden on customers who are facing repayment challenges. We also want to follow that initiative since our corporate goal is to provide housing to Nigerians,” she assured.
She, however, cautioned loan subscribers who are able to make repayments to do so in their best interest and avoid deferring their repayments, noting that forbearance does not mean that you will not be required to pay. It is only that repayment has been deferred.
Aminu-Aliyu pointed out that government as part of its efforts to get things running in the country did not default on paying workers’ salaries and therefore no default in expected in this area.
“As we are all aware so far, there is no federal or state agency or parastatal that did not pay its salaries so we expect that in all the formal sectors, all the repayment is made. So far, we have not seen a challenge on the formal sector. So we are expecting that the primary mortgage banks will liaise with the beneficiaries and continue the repayment,” he said.
She revealed that the bank was making efforts to see that it can be recapitalized. “Our source of funds is from the NHF contributors and we are, as much as possible, trying to see how we can improve on that source of fund. Away from NHF contributions, other sources of income are from commercial banks and insurance companies which we are trying to see how we can access them,” she said.
